


Blood.

by Lokis_Cat



Series: Supernatural: Prophecy [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Bad Puns, Canon Compliant, Character Death, Europe, Gen, Investigations, Monster of the Week, Original Character(s), Snark, Violence, season 5, winchester avoidance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-06
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-16 23:44:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2289053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lokis_Cat/pseuds/Lokis_Cat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This work covers the first 'series' of stories, roughly paraleling series 5 and then a little bit after that. Where episodes are paraleled more directly will be stated in the notes. This series follows Cassandra. Severin, Elias, and Lukas' journey as hunters, across the expanse of europe. Cassandra must work hard to keep her secrets hidden from her new teamates. All the while a dark part of Lukas' past waits to be revealed to the rookies and reader. It's ending will result in consequences for the team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Reflections.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter directly parallels S5E8: Changing channels. This chapter is told from Castiel's viewpoint, and shows how he met Cassandra and my own interperatation of what Gabriel did to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The telling of the story from Castiel's viewpoint is a temporary measure until more of the OC's are introduced, afterwhich the viewpoint remains from one or other of the OC's.

 

“Oh Castiel, I pray to you to get your ass down here you idjit. The boys need help." The words echoed inside his head, Castiel looked down at the demon he was interrogating and sighed. Bobby had never called him before, let alone sounding his most irritable. Curiosity getting the better of him, he rested his hand on the demons head and flexed his will to smite it before moving himself to Bobby.

* * *

Bobby, he observed from the doorway, looked even more dishevelled than usual as he wrestled with the stuck cupboard door.  
  
“Is something the matter Bobby?” Castiel asked, frowning subtly as Bobby jumped and turned to glare.  
  
“Gah, don't do that!”  
  
“Do what?”  
  
“Sneak up on me, you're gonna give me a heart-attack.”  
  
“My apologies Bobby.” Frowning and shaking his head Bobby returned to yanking the door open.  
  
“Yeah, I'm sure you're still going to keep doing it though.” Castiel glances around the house, noting the conspicuous absence of Sam and Dean, patience for human small talk wears thin.  
  
“What did you call me here for Bobby? I was busy.”  
  
“Well excuse me” he snaps, setting a tumbler down rather heavily and proceeding to fill it with cheap whiskey. “thought you might be interested in knowing that I haven't been able to raise Sam or Dean for a few days now.” He pauses to swig some of the whiskey. “And I'm getting worried, it's not like them to not check in, 'specially with what they were after.” Castiel frowns, listening attentively, all traces of impatience now gone as he realises the possible extent of the problem facing him. Bobby slams back the last of the whiskey before continuing. “Ain’t like I can go looking for them seein' as how I'm a cripple and all.”  
  
“Where are they?”  
  
“Hell if I know, last I heard they were hunting what they thought was a trickster up in Wellington, Ohio. They've had a bug in their ass about that one ever since one killed Dean a few hundred times for Sam.”  
  
“I'll find them” Castiel rumbles before disappearing.  
  
“Yeah well when you do, tell 'em...” Bobby turns to look at where Castiel once stood and sighs irritably. “Tell 'em you're too damned quiet.”

* * *

 

Castiel looked around the town and wondered where to start, If he could find their motel room he might be able to retrace their steps and find where they stumbled. By the third motel the desk clerk remembered Sam and Dean.  
  
“Yeah I remember them, their car's a beaut'. Haven't seen them in a while though, they're paid to the end of the week so I’ve left their stuff be. If they're not back though I ain’t holding onto it. Got a deal going with a buddy of mine who runs a pawn shop.” The clerk barely paid attention to Castiel as he spoke, clearly more interested in the magazine.  
  
“Thankyou,” Castiel replied before walking out into the lot and looking down the row of rooms, half of them looked empty. Knowing they always picked the same room if they could Castiel willed himself into it, not bothering with invisibility since there was no car outside it. The tacky room was indeed Sam and Deans, if the radio, lap top, and candy wrappers were anything to go by. Picking up the wrappers he sighed, definitely indicative of a trickster. Aside from evidence they had been here a few days ago the room held no clues as to where they were now though. Wearily glancing around Castiel wished they'd left some sort of note as to their location. Having been missing for days though narrowed where they might be, it would have to be somewhere isolated, abandoned, and likely with the Impala still outside it since bobby hadn't mentioned anyone finding the car abandoned. Dropping the wrappers Castiel set about searching the outskirts of the town for abandoned houses or warehouses. Eventually he found the Impala outside a warehouse that had smashed up windows and peeling paint. As he walked to the door, he wondered what he would find on the inside, or if they would even still be here.  
  
Opening the door he stepped through and found himself surrounded in fog, with lots of noise ahead of him. Emerging from the foggy tunnel Castiel glanced around in confusion. He was apparently on the stage of a gaudy Japanese TV show where Sam and Dean were bolted to platforms and looking panicky.  
  
“Cas?”  
  
“Is this another trick?” Sam asks quickly.  
  
“it's me” Castiel responds, still looking around trying to make sense of the situation “uh, what are you doing here?”  
  
“Us? What are you doing here?” Dean asks incredulously.  
  
“Looking for you, you've been missing for days”  
  
“So get us the hell out of here!” Sam exclaims. Frowning at how much of this they must have been through before he found them, Castiel steps towards them and reaches out.  
  
“Lets go”

* * *

 

Before he can touch them however the scene stutters and Castiel stumbles, glancing up in time to see the boxing glove slam into his face. Irritated at the tricksters shenanigans he stands still and tries to will himself out of the confines of the illusion, only to have a second glove follow the first. Stunned, Castiel fends of the following strikes and attempts to work out where he is. Glancing quickly around it appears that he is in the middle of a boxing ring in a small stadium filled with people in outdated clothes and hair. Having had enough of the boxer Castiel ducks under a punch and drops himself over the guard rail.  
  
As he turns away from the arena the scene is suddenly very different. All traces of the stadium replaced instead with a busy beach. Taking a moment Castiel crouches, glancing around he studies the illusion for flaws, picking up some sand and letting it fall through his fingers he frowns as he realises he can't find any. The illusion he finds himself trapped in far outstrips the abilities of any trickster, and nothing should have blocked him from flying out of the arena. As he stands back up people suddenly begin to look panicked, for a brief moment there is only silence before everyone begins screaming and running away from him. Puzzled, Castiel looks over his shoulder and his expression drops slightly as he observes the thirty foot high wall of water heading towards the beach.  
  
“Oh.” Is all that escapes the stunned Castiel, before it occurs to him, that if he cant fly, and the illusion is flawless, he has no idea what will happen if he lets the wave catch him. The sounds of panic fill the air, screams of pain as people are knocked over and trampled by others. He turns and runs inland as fast as he can, thinking franticly as he does so. He escaped the boxing match by leaving the arena, so there must also be a way out of this scene, going inside perhaps would escape the outside. As he reaches the end of the beach Castiel makes a beeline for the nearest building, its' door, partially open stands still in the wind, and light flashes from inside.  
  
Pulling the door open Castiel throws himself through it without pause, and is forced to cover his ears against the deafening sound of guns, and the distant booms of mortars. His face falls as he realises where he is now, deep in the trenches of some big war. He makes haste through the trenches, searching for another 'door' out of this scene, hoping that they do not continue to get worse. Nearby a particularly close mortar strike flings dirt up in Castiel's path, narrowly avoiding him. Shouts ring out nearby.  
  
“Gas. Gas. Gas”  
  
“Masks on soldiers!” Panic sweeps through the trench and Castiel turns and runs as fast as he can through the sticky mud, coming to a stop when he sees the low lying cloud of yellow vapour blocks his path that way as well. He takes a few steps back, looking around for a discarded gas-mask and failing to find them. Castiel winces realising his only option is to haul himself out of the trench and make a run for it. As he reaches for the top of the trench to pull himself out though, the walls seem to explode outwards and morph into a steel grey box.  
  
Castiel takes a moment to collect himself and catch his breath. Eventually becoming aware there's the sound of someone else breathing hard in the room behind him. He turns around to the sound of his name being called as one might speak of something they did not quite believe.  
  
“Castiel?” Crumpled on the floor is a bedraggled woman, matted brownish hair, threadbare clothes, and dirt-caked bare feet. strong features frame tired brown eyes that peer out from between the tangles at him. He stands, regarding her for a moment, as he ponders what manor of illusion this one is. Taking a steadying breath she speaks with a light French accent. “My name is Cassandra Loric. I am real.” Castiel moves to help her but stops as she waves him off. “I burn what little strength I have left that I might speak and be heard so please listen.” He frowns and kneels by her as she talks. “I have spent an almighty span caged in here. The illusions of this place, are beyond my control, but I can influence if I am powerful careful. The violence of them is an unfortunate side-effect of the focus of my prophecies as you have apparently encountered.”  
  
“who put you here?”  
  
“If you're here then you have met him, no?” She pauses, then at the confusion in his expression continues, an amount of hate in her voice. “Gabriel. This place is my punishment for using my foresight to aid Jehanne D'arc in her quest. To help the one person who seemed immune to the curse of my line. So now I lie here in my own little corner of hell, aware of -everything- that happens at once. I can not sleep, I can not dream, I can do naught but watch the world in disjointed sequence” She takes a shuddering breath, the outburst seeming to have sapped her strength, the walls of the box crack a little as she works to regain her composure. Castiel looks around at the sound, concern evident on his face. He returns his attention to Cassandra and sees she now sports an alarming nose-bleed from the effort she exerts. “Please” she asks desperately. “Remember me, remember my story. If my story leaves here then eventually so will I.” Face pinched in pity, Castiel rests a hand on her shoulder.  
  
“How do I get out?” She smiles an odd sort of smile at him, as if he's asked the right question when there were not only one to ask.  
  
“You ask.” She replies simply. She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes, throws her head back and screams. The sound reverberates around the room, growing to a deafening volume, forcing Castiel to cover his ears, before the box shatters in blinding white light.

 

* * *

 

 

Opening his eyes Castiel is relieved to find himself stood outside the door and next to the Impala outside the warehouse. Frowning determinately he sets off back inside to warn Sam and Dean that they could be dealing with an arch-angel, but definitely not a trickster.  
  
Storming through the door Castiel walks onto a gaudy sitcom set, Sam and Dean stare at the beat up Castiel for a moment before Dean asks,  
  
“You okay?”  
  
“I don't have much time.”  
  
“What happened” Dean interrupts.  
  
“I got out” He replies irritable at the side-track.  
  
“From where?” Sighing Castiel ignores the question.  
  
“Listen to me, something is not right, this thing is much more powerful than it should be.”  
  
“What thing, the Trickster?”  
  
“If it is a Trickster” Castiel begins to explain before Sam interrupts.  
  
“what do you mean?” Castiel opens his mouth to continue but instead has the wind knocked out of him as he is thrown violently backwards into the wall. The audience applauds suddenly as an overly cheery voice jumps onto set.  
  
“Heyo!” Gabriel grins and bows once to the audience who explode in cheers and rapturous applause. Playing up to the attention as Castiel rights himself, becoming surprised to realise he's been gagged. “Thank you! Thank you! Please, stop” The trickster turns from the audience and grins at Castiel, who by now has recognised him as Gabriel. “Hi Castiel!” Gabriel makes a little shooing motion and the TV-set blips out of existence. to be replaced by a crowded darkened street.

 

* * *

 

Loud angry people yell, somewhere ahead horses clip anxiously. Glad at least for the lack of immediate threat. It doesn't take him long to look about and realise that he's in the middle of a riot, which means the area won't stay safe for long. He begins to push himself to the edge of the crowd then stops. If this place is temporarily secure or, at least, a danger he can handle. It might be best that he remain, at least for the time being. Thinking back to Cassandra and the colossal effort it took to remove him the first time, it seems unlikely that he can expect a rescue from the same source. Meaning he must rely on Sam and Dean to figure Gabriel out and force his hand. A long shot, but if there's anything they've built a career on it's pulling off the long shot. Castiel shoves himself to the edge of the crowd, remaining on the fringes of the conflict, but far enough out that he can leave quickly. Loud muffled voices call out over the hubbub, he catches maybe every other word, enough to work out that the voice is not only telling people to leave, but speaking Greek. Sighing he looks around for a nearby exit, spotting an alley nearby that glows oddly with a flickering light, that'll be the way when the time comes. Already the sounds ahead grow violent and restless, until the crowd almost roars and begins surging, for a moment there's only the roar and then the screams, and the frightened whinnies of horses explode into the air. The mob turns and runs madly, fleeing the chaos ahead, right into Castiel. Getting caught in the stampede Castiel struggles to fight his way over to the alley, practically falling into it when he reaches it.  
  
He stumbles on the suddenly dusty earth, strong heat warms his back, spinning round expecting something dangerous as the source of it, Castiel is relieved to find it is merely a large bonfire chasing away the dusks shadows. An odd tenor chanting rises and falls in a language that, oddly, is not being translated like the Greek was moments ago. He wanders through the camp, the tipi's and dark skinned people working on basic day to day chores complete the image. For whatever reason Castiel finds himself in one of the old Native-American camps. Following the chanting he finds the camp shaman chanting over a prone young boy obviously ill somehow. He sighs, knowing the boy most likely dies of his sickness. Castiel tours the camp for a while, looking for whatever threat will manifest, doubting the boys illness counts, after a while his attention is drawn by the sound of bugles over the distance in the dark. Most of the camps inhabitants look over to the sound as well, and it occurs to Castiel that most of them are women and children and elderly. The horn blows again, and this time the thunder of hooves can be heard, as he continues to watch the cavalry become visible. Sounds of fear begin to permeate the camp and Castiel looks for the exit, before he finds one however, the riders reach the camp and some dismount, yanking the women about, obviously looking for something. The rest remain mounted, rifles at the ready, one of the searchers comes out of a tipi throwing a woman on the ground and brandishing a few rifles. They yell at her and she babbles back in broken English, an older man goes over and tries to get them away from her, one of the mounted soldiers shoots him. Chaos breaks loose, with everyone panicking, women and children running, soldiers shooting. Castiel ducks out of sight behind a tipi and wonders if he can hide from them and wait it out. It's then that he notices one of the tents being ignored by both soldiers and families. Moving quickly over to it he draws the attention of some of the soldiers, who begin yelling and running at him. Taking a chance he dives through the opening.  
  
Cicadas click throughout the darkened dusty streets streets of an american settlers township, the streets seem deserted, and chaotic. Upturned wagons and discarded items lay here and there. Sounds of violence drift from up ahead and Castiel ducks behind a nearby tree to watch, resting his hand on the bark as he looks round He frowns, feeling the sticky sap and indentations of freshly carved wood. The carving reads: 'CROATOAN' in scrawling uneven letters. Looking at it his expression hardens as he realises this is going to be a lot harder than the previous memories to escape. Thinking that, he realises that's exactly what these are. Cassandra's memories from her imprisonment, which is why Greek was translated but the tribal tongue wasn't, she must be able to speak Greek. What someone from France was doing speaking Greek however was beyond him. Hearing footsteps behind him Castiel turns to look at about the same time the person notices him and begin running towards him, Castiel runs for the nearby house grabbing the woodcutters axe from the stump and swings at the man, nearly lopping his arm off. But as he pulls the axe back for a second swing it's as if the wound never existed. The man tries to grapple Castiel who manages to throw him off and do the only thing he can, run. Of course that makes noise and before long there's more than one set of footsteps following him. As he begins to get winded Castiel changes course, making for one of the houses, hoping it to be another doorway. Running through and slamming it shut the scene however doesn't change, and within moments the men chasing him begin pounding on the door, trying to force it open. Pulling the bookcase by the door over to block it He runs and jumps through the window opposite, aiming to put as much distance between him and the town as possible.

* * *  


 

Maybe ten paces from the window however the town is abruptly replaced by abandoned warehouse. Breathing hard Castiel looks over Sam, Dean, and Gabriel who's ringed by holy fire, standing next to him. Dean looks back at Castiel, faint lines of concern mark his expression.  
  
“Cas you okay?”  
  
“I'm fine” Castiel replies shortly, “Hello Gabriel.”  
  
“Hey bro,” Gabriel says nonchalantly “how's the search for daddy going? Let me guess, awful.” Dean turns to leave, apparently having had enough of Gabriel.  
  
“Okay we're outa here, C'mon Sam.” As they walk towards the door, notes of uncertainty enter Gabriel's voice.  
  
“Uh, okay? Guys? So, so what you gonna, just gonna leave me here forever?” Turning to look back at the worried looking angel Dean snaps angrily.  
  
“No, we're not because we don't screw with people the way you do, and for the record this is not about some prize fight between your brothers, or some destiny that can't be stopped. This is about you being too afraid to stand up to your family.” As Dean rants, Gabriel's expression hardens from worry to something akin to anger at being spoken to this way. Dean reaches and pulls the sprinkler system on and Gabriel seems to relax, glancing up at the sprinklers he looks thoughtful. “Don't say I never did anything for you.” Sam and Dean leave but Castiel remains for a moment, watching Gabriel as the fire slowly dies, wondering whether or not to ask about Cassandra. He decides against it, Gabriel would probably only lie if he didn't just throw Castiel back there for fun. With one last look at the defeated looking Arch-angel Castiel shakes his head subtly and heads outside to his friends.


	2. Sleeping Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel returns to Cassandra, freeing her in hope that she'll be a valuble game-piece, little realising he gets a game-player instead.

 

Castiel was not so foolish as to release an unknown woman from Gabriel without going prepared. His brother may have questionable taste in entertainment but it was worth knowing who Cassandra was beforehand. Confusing a helpful librarian led to being told that Jehanne Darc was the original name for Joan of Arc, but there was no mention of a woman by the name of Cassandra in her life’s story. The Librarian did comment on how there were similarities between his description of Cassandra and the ancient Greek seer Cassandra, cursed by Apollo to never be believed about her prophecies.

“She became concubine to King Agamemnon and bore two children, both murdered along with her and Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra.”

“Is it possible one of her children survived her?”

“Oh I highly doubt it, there would have been little reason to suspect an attack and his wife would have wanted to be thorough.”

“If Cassandra was a seer perhaps she saw their demise.”

“Oh that stuff isn’t real, besides she did die, wouldn’t have let that happen if she saw it.”

“I see, Thank-you.” Castiel disappears from the library while the librarian is momentarily distracted, confusing her even more when she turns back to talk further.

***

It took a week of flitting around to gather all the necessary components’ to ensure Castiel could pierce the illusion and see the truth of Cassandra’s prison. Having met her he could now track her and knew she was not in hell as she thought, but buried underground in France. The spells key ingredient, the crushed bone of a scholar, was the hardest part to find. Any scholar would have done, but a particularly studious one would be worth the hassle he thought. Gabriel’s illusion was unlike to be easy to break. That combined with the Van-van oil, salt, rosemary, and a drop of his blood would seal the spell. The casting needed to be done while under the effects of the illusion it was needed to counter. He had to hope that not only would the memory he dropped into allow him the time needed, but that Gabriel did not notice his presence and block his access to heaven again. Adding a Cell phone, torch, a bowl, and a knife to the bag, Castiel considered himself ready, took a breath, and moved.

Castiel peered around the timber and plaster two-story house he was inside. His ears greeted by a dull sustained roar, snaps, crackles and pops. Coughing in the smoke filled air he knelt and hurried with the spell, layering salt, bone powder, and rosemary in the bowl before covering them in oil, careful not to disturb the layers. A sharp snap, followed by a crack and then a thud rattled the floor above him, drawing his attention for a moment. Pulling the mundane blade he sliced open his hand and held it over the bowl, murmuring.

“DARBS CNILA MICMA PAMBT VAOAN C O ALA.” (‘Dar-bess kah-nee-lah mee-kah-mah puh-mah-bah-tah vah-oh-ahn kuh oh ah-lah’) The mixture bubbled and congealed into a paste, Castiel quickly closed his eyes and painted the mixture over them.

When he opened them again it was pitch black, and he was glad he had thought to bring a torch. The narrow beam illuminated most of the small cavern well enough to see by. Only an angel could have gotten here without mining equipment he realised as he looked around. Any passage that once led here was long since gone, collapsed or perhaps grown over by the stalactites. Castiel cleared up the spell materials and scanned the cavern, his eyes fell upon a stone sarcophagi slightly off-centre, with one of the stalagmites growing into a corner of it. The sarcophagus was covered with Enochian sigils preserving the occupant while magnifying and projecting their natural abilities. Kneeling next to it Castiel grunts as he tries to lift the lid, it remains stuck fast for a moment before the stalagmite cracks and the lid shifts to reveal Cassandra. Complete with matted grease stained hair, mud smears, and blood trails evidencing where a nose-bleed and tears of blood ran unchecked. Her eyes are wide open but blind to this world, her mouth moves along with whatever vision she’s witnessing. Producing the knife again Castiel returns to the sigils, destroying all of the projection markings, he hesitates when looking to the rest of them though, and glances back to Cassandra. He frowns softly, 600 years locked in a box watching the world like this, she could be irreparably mad or catatonic. Having seen the nature of her prison he knew she had not lied about her abilities which had previously been a concern. Shaking his head slightly he began to dismantle the rest of the sigils, it didn’t matter, her being a seer was reason enough to attempt this. The help she could give to finding God or destroying Lucifer would be invaluable. As the last of the sigils were destroyed she let out a sigh and passed out. Castiel lifted her out carefully and debated where to take her, perhaps not straight to the Winchester’s, someone would no doubt assail her with questions the moment she awoke. It occurred to him that a church in her native France might be preferable. The nearest town had a suitable church, so that is where he went with her.

***

Father Severin Renard smiled as he tidied hymn books into the back of pews; a tidy church was a happy church. Severin has the sort of soft appearance that would make him easily discounted by anyone looking for trouble, brown eyes, and floppy brown hair too short to be called long and too long to be called short, he stands at 5'11''. His mind focused on what hymns he would use next sermon, it is entirely believable that he turned round to see the face-painted Castiel and an unconscious, grime encrusted Cassandra and shrieked in a rather unmanly fashion. Severin looked between the door he very definitely remembered locking, and the two people who remained in front of him.

“Eh, I don’t suppose you two are hallucinations telling me to get more sleep are you?” He asked hesitantly, in French of course.

“No, though that would not affect your requirement for sleep.”

“Oh,” Severin sags somewhat sadly. “Uhm, it looks like your friend should be in a hospital, should I call you a taxi?”

“She is not physically hurt, she just requires somewhere to rest.”

“And this is not something you can provide for her? Or perhaps a hostel? Not that I do not wish to help but you must understand that it is not something this church is equipped for.” Severin looks hopeful as he spoke, clearly wishing he’d already gone to bed and didn’t have to deal with strange people who broke into his church late at night. Castiel however had had enough of the prevarication, concentrating for a moment the room seemed to darken and a flash of lightning silhouetted his wings against the entranceway.

“Father, I just pulled this woman out of 600 years of torment, she needs somewhere quiet and normal to regain her senses. The only place I can provide would be almost the exact opposite of that. Please watch over her as she rests for me“. Severin watched Castiel with an expression of absolute shock, and to his credit, only a small amount of fear. “If this is about any cost she m…” Castiel continues but is hastily interrupted by Severin.

“No! No of course not, forgive me, it’s just, didn’t expect, of course your friend is welcome to stay your, err, grace?” He stammered, seeming desperate to make up for his earlier lapse. “There’s a cot in the back, you can set her down there. Please, this way” Severin hesitates, momentarily unsure if he should go first or not, before giving a nervous laugh and walking ahead. Castiel grimaces at the priests genuflection but he could not now take her to Sam, Dean, and Bobby, one of them would bully her for answers the moment she awoke, shaking his head slightly he followed Severin and set her down on the pro-offered cot. Closing his eyes he places his fingers on her chest and seared the Enochian runes for concealment into her ribs as he had done for Sam and Dean.

“When you need me, you need only pray for Castiel and I will return.”

“Of course your grace,” Severin replied, bowing. “I will take good care of, her.” He straightened up to find Castiel already gone. Blinking in surprise he looked down at the unconscious woman, belatedly laying a blanket over her. As he stood up he smiled down at her, somewhere safe to rest, he could do that. He frowned suddenly as it hit him; he had no idea if he was supposed to do anything else.

***

Sometime later, Cassandra gradually became aware of the sound of many voices singing as one. She lay there, thinking nothing much, merely listening as she had done for centuries. Puzzled she realised she couldn’t see anything, and that oddly it was because her eyes were closed, she opened them and looked around the room. It was small and cramped, the cot she was on seemed to be an afterthought to what otherwise appeared to be an office, though much of the more modern furnishings were unknown to her she dimly recognised they were for studying. Slowly more inconsistencies with her usual visions became apparent to her, she didn’t usually have any control over her viewpoint, yet as she sat up it changed. Cassandra, lifting her hands, stared at them as she turned them over, she looked up as a slightly plump woman with short brown hair wandered back into the room and smiled at her.

“You’re awake, good, how’re you feeling?” Staring at her in astonishment, Cassandra replied .

“Is this real?” The woman blinked at the oddness of the question before answering.

“Yes dear, quite real.” Like a dam had burst inside her Cassandra started crying with relief, murmuring in halting breaths as she did so.

“I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it. I’m finally free.” The woman, though shocked by the sudden outburst soon softened, sitting next to Cassandra and putting an arm round her as she cried it out. As the sobs ebbed the woman reached for the nearby pitcher and poured Cassandra a glass of water. “Thank you” Cassandra said, drinking most of the glass in one go, apparently being very thirsty, before returning her attention to the woman. “Who are you?”

“My name is Margot, I help my brother run this church. He tells me an angel dropped you off. Why he’d exaggerate like that for someone abandoning you on our doorstep I don’t know though. Do you know where you are?”

“No”.

“You are in St Paul’s church in Avallon”

“What date is it?” Cassandra asked, causing Margot to frown.

“21.11.2009, my dear, how long have you been wherever you were that was so filthy?” Cassandra sighed and looked out the window.

“Too long.”

“Well you’re safe now,” Margot replied, smiling. “What’s your name dear?”

“Cassandra, Cassandra Loric.”

“Well Cassandra, I’ve got some porridge on the boil would you like a bowl before or after we get you cleaned up?” In spite of everything Cassandra smiled, Margot’s mother hen attitude was reassuring in a way not much else is.

“Before, please.” Margot smiled and chattered away as she banged about in the kitchenette.

“So nice to find a young lady with manners these days, so many people think less and less of them. Oh come on through dear there’s a table and chairs in here. Now I’ve got some jam or honey to go in the porridge already on the table, there’s some milk or juice in the fridge, you help yourself dear.” Cassandra wandered through while Margot chattered and gazed around the room, by her own standards the kitchenette was remarkably well equipped though she got the impression this was not actually the case. At the mention of milk and juice, Cassandra walked over to the gestured off-white cupboard and opened it. Surprised to find the inside cold, but that seemed about right to her so she shrugged it off and lifted one of the glass milk bottles out to set on the table. No sooner had she done that then a glass, cutlery, and a bowl of the porridge appeared next to it. “Eat up before it gets cold” Margot said, smiling.

***

Sometime later Cassandra emerged from the shower; warm water to wash in that did not cool rapidly was a wonder she had decided. The large (by her standards) looking glass on the wall now reflected a much more favourable woman in it. Dark blonde hair fell in soft waves framing strong features and warm brown eyes. She looked underfed and tired, an effect that was exaggerated by her small 5'4'' stature, since it was accurate she decided she wouldn’t let it bother her over-much. Looking to the door she saw a pile of neatly folded clothes had appeared, obviously cut for a man but Margot’s clothes certainly wouldn’t fit her better than these. After dressing herself in the slightly ill-fitting clothes she let herself out of the tiny bathroom and followed the sound of voices back to the kitchenette. Severin looked up as she entered and smiled warmly.

“Ah, there you are, how are you?”

“Much better for being clean father.”

“Sorry about the clothes, best we could do on short notice I’m afraid.” Severin said, smiling sheepishly.

“Would never have guessed you were blonde before, what with all that muck” Margot chipped in. “You look lovely dear, but I really must be off, you’re in good hands with my brother Severin here. I’ll be back later” She said putting on a coat and heading out as Severin raised a hand in farewell.

“I trust she was not too, overbearing?” He asked once Margot had left.

“No” Cassandra replied, “she was very pleasant.”

“Good, good.” Severin said as he relaxed somewhat, “she can be a bit much at times, but I didn’t want you to wake up alone. Ah, should I let your friend know you’re awake?”

“Friend?” Cassandra frowned softly in confusion.

“Yes, tall fellow with the short dark hair and pale coat? The angel who brought you to us.”

“Castiel did this?”

“He did.”

“I did not expect that of him” Cassandra sighed, “yes, if that is what he asked then it is best that is seen to directly.” She turned to watch out the window, smiling at the blackbirds picking at apples on the lawn as Severin nodded and left the room. A few moments later a baritone voice sounded behind her.

“Cassandra.” Smiling softly she turned to face him.

“Castiel, I owe you a great debt I may not easily repay, but first, will I need to worry about Gabriel finding me again?” Castiel shook his head.

“The runes I etched into your ribs will hide you from all the angels in creation.”

“Gabriel?” exclaims Severin seeming slightly alarmed, going largely ignored by Castiel and Cassandra.

“Good” said Cassandra, sighing with relief.

“I need your help.” Cassandra looks down and nods a little.

“I know, and I'd be of a mind that as long as it keep me away from the Winchesters my assistance is yours. Though I know not how much help I will be.” Castiel frowns.

“How did you know what I was going to ask?” Looking back up to meet Castiel’s Gaze she answers.

“I am an Oracle Castiel, I know the tools of fate when I see them.”

“Oracle!” squeak’s Severin, again going ignored as Cassandra continues.

“They are in a fine mess, and no mistake, you desiring to help them is not a great leap. However, those boys, from what visions I managed to retain a memory of, seem to have a habit of getting the people around them killed. A fate I would greatly prefer to avoid.”

“But your prophecies could be key in stopping the apocalypse.” Castiel says, stepping closer to her sounding mildly irritated by her reluctance.

“Apocalypse…” Severin murmurs faintly, finally conceding to sitting down and watching the conversation in a stunned silence.

“Nohow can I help you like that.” Cassandra replies simply.

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Both” She replies firmly. “I am cursed Castiel, there is no way I can reveal my visions and have you believe in them or me.”

“You were able to make Joan of Arc believe you.” Castiel says curtly.

“Jehanne was plum mad, her own delusions seemed perfectly real to her, my curse could have little effect upon her addled head. But unless you have another delusional and charismatic leader who you would trust hidden away somewhere, then that avenue is closed to us I am afraid.”

“No, I don’t know anyone like that” He concedes. Turning back to the window Cassandra continues in a less confrontational tone.

“However, some of my ancestors have had limited success acting personally to alter their own visions. If you want my help then that is how it must be done.” Castiel looks at Cassandra who’d be charitably described as slight and shakes his head.

“That is not something you are capable of doing.”

“Not at present Certainly, I know little of how the current world works, just enough to get myself into trouble. But I owe a debt I must repay, and there is little I can do but seek to amend my abilities so I am able to do so.” Clearly un-enamoured with that solution Castiel pauses a little before replying.

“Very well, if I can find a way to lift your family’s curse would you consent to prophesize for us?” Turning back form the window Cassandra smiles and spreads her arms expansively.

“My family has spent centuries trying to do just that to no avail, but do not let that deter you. Should you manage to make fist of it then I will tell you what I can to alter the course of things to come.” She switches her attention to Severin. “Father?” He looks up at her a little tiredly, apparently emotionally worn out by the morning’s revelations.

“Yes?”

“I do not wish to overstay my welcome here but if there is some task I might undertake that would enable me to abide here further I would greatly prefer it.”

“I, yes of course. You’re welcome to remain here.” Smiling Cassandra looks back to Castiel.

“Acceptable?”

“Yes, what will you do?”

“I am not sure, I need to find the nearest supernatural underground and catch up on the changes of the last 600 years.” She says picking up one of the magazines from the stack and looking at its cover curiously. “A big enough task to be getting on with don’t you think?” She glances up at Castiel for an answer to see him already gone.

“He just disappeared” Severin Comments, surprise covering his face. Cassandra sighs.

“Yes.”


	3. Man's Best Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassandra sets out on her first foray into her new world with Severin as a guiding hand and walks right into a fight.

 

The room was small, to most it might have been impossibly cramped, but there are benefits to being used to living in middle ages accommodations. The hard camp cot was comfortable, and having to fold it up to have room for the table seemed useful as opposed to a hassle. This was, of course, difficult to convince Severin of. He seemed perpetually guilty that she only had one re-purposed store room. It had been three weeks since she was dropped at the church, the intervening time had filled her out from underfed to healthy although not particularly strong, but that was not overly necessary for the current step. Cassandra reviewed the news article again, local authorities were warning residents to be especially cautious of strange dogs. Apparently their working theory was that some strays were responsible for the recent mauling’s at the new housing estate development. One dog might get violent but not a pack, and not enough to hunt someone down. A hesitant knock on the door draws her attention, she sighs and calls out.

“Come in Severin”.

“How do you always know it's me?” he asks as he walks in. She smiled knowingly and answered,

“Mayhaps I just always assume it's you even when it is not.”

“Somehow I doubt that, how are you today?”

“I'm well, I would like your help though.”

“Oh? What with?”

“I need to work out how to get to Épinal, it is a good guess that hunters will arrive there if they haven't already. It will be a good place to begin.” Severin frowns, and reaches out of the room to bring in a second chair to sit on. He turns the laptop to him and scans the offending article.

“You cannot be serious, you are going to hunt something that ripped apart three very strong men?” Cassandra smiles and gestures to the screen.

“What tells you they were strong?”

“They were found on a construction site off hours, so either late-workers or they broke in, two of them after the first death. So they were confident in defending themselves.” Cassandra nods.

“Astute, I'm not hunting the source of the mauling’s, I'm hunting the hunters. I need the connections and the education, and I can't think of an easier way to track some down.” Severin nods looking thoughtful.

“I'll drive you there then.”

“That is really not necessary Severin, you have duties here that I should not be taking you away from. I can hire transport.” Severin smiles smugly as Cassandra protests, he waves dismissively.

“You can't hire a car, you'd be stuck with trains or buses. You'll forgive me for saying so but you are not yet so comfortable to manage dealing with all that would be new to you in such a situation.” She frowns, setting her jaw.

“This could prove to be powerful dangerous to you, I won’t have you getting hurt on my account.”

“You started this conversation telling me how you were going to be avoiding danger.” He sighs and leans back in the chair, “your angel charged me to take care of you. You need to accept I'm coming with you on this.”

“He's not my angel, just an angel.” she says sounding defeated.

“Never the less, you need my help. I'll pack a weekend bag shall I?” she sighs and nods.

“Yes, that would be best.” Severin picks up the chair and goes to leave as Cassandra calls out to him, “Severin?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you,” she says smiling, he returns the smile, pausing a moment before responding.

“You're welcome.”

* * *

 

Several hours later in his silver Chrysler on the road to Épinal Severin glances over to Cassandra.

“This must be very strange for you, I'm surprised you catch up so quickly.” She smiles, staring out the window.

“It is hard to explain, I suspect it has to do with watching while I slept. I don't know everything, not, hmm, not that I'm aware of anyway. It is more like I once knew a long time ago and when I see something new to me I often find it familiar. I do not always know why, but things will just seem like they make sense and I almost know what to expect.” Severin frowns.

“Sounds confusing.”

“It is, mostly I just take things as they come, I will likely never have the learning of everything and so the trick is to hide the ignorance, but you're right that it won't hold me forever, and certainly not for this”

“What do you mean? You seem to be doing brilliantly. If I didn’t know you were a woman out of her time I would never have guessed there was a problem.” She sighs

“I seem to be doing well because I am not leading a path I'm following one. Everything I seem competent at is something you've shown me or I've watched happen.”

“I see, well it is still clever.”

“It's also why I could not have easily done this alone. I'd need to charm or lie to get the information I need. The first I could probably do if I knew what I was asking for. But I couldn’t lie convincingly and I can't adjust on the fly if I needed to. Let alone the difficulties I would have had in arranging transport and lodging.”

“Well you're a quick learner, you'll get there. So what is the plan?”

“Any hunters are going to need information which the Gendarme, Journalists, and Construction Company would have. I opine we can ask them about other people from out of town who're asking questions.”

“Did you have a story in mind as to why you'd want that information?” Severin asks.

“No, I am uncertain what would work best.”

“I'll have a think, I'm sure I can come up with something.”

 

* * *

 

As night-time falls, Cassandra drops her bag on the hotel bed and looks back at the exhausted Severin

“How do you still look fresh and ready to go?” He asks, apparently envious.

“I find I don't sleep so much any-more these days, I expect it has to do with being asleep for 600 years.” Severin frowns, apparently saddened by that.

“So what do you do with your evenings then?”

“I use the internet you showed me, and I try to catch up with the last 600 years’ worth of change. If I find some translation work I can do without credentials then I would do that as well”

“Ah, you're getting the knack of it then?”

“Yes, the way the letters are ordered didn't make much sense to me at first, so I asked the internet why, remarkably useful. Did you know that early typewriters could jam if letters next to each-other were pressed too quickly, so they worked out a layout to make that least likely to occur?” Severin smiles fondly.

“I did not, will not be long before you know more than me.”

“Perhaps. Get some sleep Severin, you look exhausted.”

“That is an excellent idea, Good night Cassandra.”

“Good night Severin.” She smiles at the very quickly unconscious priest before turning her attention to the laptop and a night of research.

 

* * *

 

_The world was grey, with odd splashes of colour she didn't understand, and it stank of fear. Something she realised she didn’t know before, now had a tangible smell. The ground hurtled by close to her face, the smell of lunch wafted ahead of her mingled closely with the scent of fear, and it smelt delicious. A flash of grey-scale movement too fast to follow passes before her eyes shortly before liquid wets her lips, so sweet and, coppery?_

Cassandra wakes up, after-images of the vision she apparently had sometime in the night finally waking her up, and slowly blurring as a dream might. She struggled to recall the details, she'd seen through the eyes of a dog she suspected. She remembered an awareness of where others were, spread out and flanking, with the alpha following up the rear. The rest slipped away too quickly, sleeping visions were the worst for it. The smell of coffee and pastries filled the air. Severin was sat eating some of them, he smiles blearily at her.

“Coffee is a wonder in the morning” He gestures to the second to-go cup and bag of pastries. “I had an idea about what to tell anyone who queries why you're asking about outside investigators. We can say you had an accident and have amnesia which is why we have so little information to search for them with.”

“That’s a good idea” Cassandra closes her eyes a moment as she enjoys the pastry. “That would be why you're in uniform then” she polishes off the rest of the pastry. “I expect it won't be long before something interesting happens today, let me get dressed and we'll get started.”

 

* * *

 

The press office was loud, crowded, and cluttered. Cassandra watched the employees work as Severin talked to a receptionist, everyone seemed to spend a great deal of time talking far louder than was required, especially for a job that involved writing. She shook her head a little and focused her attention back to Severin and the Clerk he had collared.

“So we are looking for anyone from out of town who has expressed an interest in these animal attacks.”

“You mean like national press?”

“Probably but not necessarily, they might be DCRI agents, unfortunately she simply doesn't remember.”

“You know we could run a story with your friend’s picture, see if anyone recognises her, father.”

“Absolutely not, I'm afraid she is adamant to find people who remember her herself, otherwise anyone could claim to know her” the clerk frowns but shrugs.

“Fair enough, I don’t know about DCRI but we had some Interpol agents checking with the gendarme, something about checking some German guys who did this stuff once haven’t jumped borders. There's also two journalists in town, let me grab their details for you.” Severin turns to Cassandra as he leaves.

“You think we should look more at the Interpol agents?”

“Maybe, I don’t know what that is, Journalists are just as likely though.”

“Ah, Interpol is a law enforcement agency staffed by a lot of countries that crosses borders for some crimes.” Cassandra pauses for a moment to take this in.

“And this has not caused wars?” Severin laughs.

“No, they are careful to avoid the political crimes, instead they pick up people their member countries all want to prosecute, murderers instead of activists.” She nods a little, looking back to the clerk as he returns with a sheet of paper.

“Got three of the four names for you and what contact details we have for them but I got something a little more useful for you. The police scanner we have just lit up, they found another guy recently. Anyone interested in these attacks will probably be there, want to follow me over?” Cassandra winced, knowing now what she'd seen in the night, the hunt that had led to that person’s death. Sighing softly she looked up to see them watching her, she nodded and gestured for them to proceed her.

 

* * *

 

On scene with the press Cassandra and Severin couldn't get very close, which was fine with her, she didn’t want the dogs she wanted the hunters. Marc, the clerk they'd followed, pointed out the two national journalists to them. They had notebooks and scribbled away, likely drafting the article they'd write, most likely genuine journalists. The German Interpol agents were no-where to be seen though that could be because they were inside the half built shell of a house. Looking around Cassandra began to recognise parts of the night’s vision, turning to where she remembered the dog running she slowly sidled around the cordon to the right place. Glancing back she saw Severin start to follow and waved him off, his questions would only slow her down. The area had seen little traffic as all the press had waited nearer the road and parked cars. Using a stick to turn over leaves and brush aside twigs she scanned the ground for evidence of the dogs passage. Her attention focused she only dimly recognised voices inside the cordon, ignoring them as she was outside the plastic tape and shouldn’t be in their way. Finding a print finally she followed the tracks backwards a short distance to find a complete set, frowning she heard someone jogging over to her and glanced up to see two suited men approaching. She studied them silently as they did. One had a beard and close cut almost shaved hair, at nearly six feet with a broad stature, he was imposing. The other one had blonde long hair neatly tied at the base of his neck, shorter than his friend and slightly narrower in stature. Drawing level with her they stopped, hesitating a moment at her lack of greeting before recovering.

“You shouldn’t wander around here alone miss, dangerous dogs about.” the bearded one said. She smiled, heavily German accented French, these were the German Interpol agents they'd wanted to see. Deciding to see how they would react she did nothing but smile and resume following the tracks. They didn't stop her, instead watching curiously and staying behind her out of her way. So they were comfortable around trackers, hardly normal police work. Uncovering a complete set at last she knelt down, and used her hand-span to measure the distance between the prints. Silently gesturing the rough size of the animal that made them as she worked it out, they remained silent as she worked, so they were also comfortable around people behaving oddly. Sitting back on her heels she looked at the size she'd gestured, slightly too small for a wolf so they were definitely a domestic dog. She frowned thoughtfully and looked around, briefly considering looking for other tracks to work out the number of dogs, before dismissing the idea as beyond her skill and likely a useless waste of time. The Germans began talking softly in German, slow enough that she was just about able to keep up if she concentrated.

“Okay. Definitely not animal-like but actually a dog then”

“Yes except dogs don’t act like this and wouldn’t hit the EMF.”

“Right but I’ve never even heard of animals leaving ghosts before, why would they?” Cassandra smiled, she had her hunters for sure now. Just as she was about to stand up she realised why the picture looked odd to her. Moving over a bit, the men falling silent as she moved, she looked at the chunks of churned earth in regular pattern. Her eyes widened as she recognised it, seeing her expression Beardie gestured for her to explain. Apparently they had assumed she didn’t speak French or German. So, of course, Cassandra decided to answer in German.

“Horse and hunting dogs.” They stared at her for a moment, and Cassandra noticed Severin running up behind them. She smiled at the hunters surprise and stepped past to Severin, slipping back into French “I have found who we are looking for. You were right, it was the Interpol agents.”

“Ah, good” He smiles “That did not take long. The journalists are all leaving”

“Hang on” interrupts the blonde, stepping up next to them. “You understood every word we said and let us believe you didn’t?” Cassandra smiles.

“Naturally” she answers, causing Blondie to frown.

“Why?”

“Because people speak more freely when they think none can understand them. I'm Cassandra and this is Severin.”

“That doesn’t explain why” snaps Blondie, apparently more irritable than Beardie who leans on a tree watching his friend get irate with mild amusement.

“I couldn’t very well ask if you were hunters without risking looking plum mad if you weren’t. The solution to that is to trick the information out of you.” Blondie glowers as Cassandra explains but Beardie saunters over to respond.

“I'm Elias and that's Lukas, are those tracks real or part of your ruse?”

“Oh, quite real. Useful coincidence really.” Severin looks over to her at this.

“You found tracks?” he asks

“Yes, more than one dog and a horse”

“So why were you looking for us?” asks Elias warily.

“It is long in the telling, succinctly put I need someone to show me the ropes.” Elias nods a little and gestures around the area.

“What do you know about what happened here?”

“That dogs' wouldn’t do this without being told to which would be the reason for the horse tracks, from your comments earlier you believe this to be the work of a ghost, nothing further.” Cassandra answers, Elias nods and elaborates.

“It's a ghost though it took us a while to work out, if it wasn't for the EMF we'd not have worked it out so easily, dogs aren’t ghosts that we've heard but people manifest other things with them sometimes so I don’t see why not. The large range was only puzzling at a glance. Turns out all this land once belonged to the same landowner, Emmanuel Laroche who went missing 40 years ago.”

“The former maid we managed to track down was more spooked by the deaths than she wanted to let on I think. All she’d say was that he got what he deserved, and that anyone who’d know more about that had already died. Apparently _someone_ on the staff killed him and buried him somewhere for his crimes. The rest never asked beyond that it was done. The only reason she’s still in the town rather than having moved further away is because she lacks the money to do so.” Lukas adds. “You know this makes sense actually Emmanuel's mansion is full of hunting tools and trophies. I’d wager he’s hunting people on his land.” Elias nods and looks to Cassandra.

“Can you track these to their source?” She frowns looking back to the tracks as she considers her answer.

“Mayhaps, if it stays this obvious, but that is no hard task.”

“So much for not going looking for trouble” Severin comments, seeming unsurprised.

“We’d have pulled foot if we were going to be in the way, unfortunately it seems I am useful at present.” Smiling briefly at him she returns her attention to the tracks and starts to follow them. “So, three questions. How do we deal with ghosts, why did a ghost leave tracks, and why are we following them?” Elias laughs.

“You really are a rookie, ghosts are dealt with by salt, salt lines, and iron weapons.” He explains. “The last two are related, ghosts don’t usually leave tracks, that this one did makes me wonder if it thinks it has to. That would mean where the tracks start or end is important. Wager there’s a good chance it might be where they’re buried”

“Clever.” Comments Severin.

“If he’s right it is” says Lukas. The trail Cassandra follows is odd, the tracks of the horse proved the easiest to follow as the dogs didn’t leave consistent tracks. What tracks there were, often ran right through obstacles and veered around empty spaces. With a jolt she realised they were avoiding old obstacles and ignoring newer ones.

“I swan, it’s like they’re locked in one moment of time” she muses.

“What?” snaps Lukas. Cassandra frowns at his tone before explaining.

“Well see here, the dog that made these tracks ran right through the sapling.”

“They’re ghosts, things don’t have to be solid to them.” He replies, clearly doubting her.

"Very well, why does every track veer off course to avoid this very old oak?”

“Huh” Lukas pauses looking between the two examples briefly before sighing.

“Is that normal for a ghost?” asks Severin to Elias.

“There’s as much a normal for ghosts as there is for people. You know I think we’re headed up to the original estate, Severin, Lukas, you two want to bring the cars up?”

“Yeah, sure, going to need those for this before long hopefully, come on Severin.” Only a short time after they had left Elias speaks up.

“So where did you learn to do this?” Cassandra pauses then smiles slightly, shaking her head.

“I expect Severin is getting a similar interrogation?”

“Hey this isn’t an interrogation, I was just asking” He responds lightly.

“And no doubt hoping it would lead to why I want to learn to hunt.”

“Why do you want to hunt?” He asks with exaggerated cheer.

“I owe a debt.”

“To Severin?”

“No, and no amount of charm will entice me to reveal to whom the debt is owed. That is not a thing I am interested in discussing.”

“Ah,” he responds soberly “Someone died then.” Her mind, already thinking of Castiel was greeted with a brief recollection of his fight with Raphael, and eventual demise at his hands. A sight she realised now she must have seen during her imprisonment that was now returned to her. Noticing she had paused Cassandra schooled her expression into a more sombre one and replied.

“Yes, that would be a truth.”

“A lot of us start out that way, for me though it’s been family tradition for a while now. Best not asking Lukas though, I don’t think he’ll ever stop being sore about it.” Having crossed into the fields surrounding the central estate, more tracks began to converge on the trail she was following.

“We’re getting close,” she informs Elias. They pause as they reach the top of the short rise and see the overgrown grounds of the mansion, long past the rescue of casual maintenance, including one flowerbed that looked unusually barren and trampled. “In-fact, I expect that we have located the source, what follows? Salting the earth?”

“Nah we’ve got to uncover the remains first, then salt and burn the bones. I really hope that’s the right spot, otherwise it’s going to be a lot of digging for nothing. If I'm honest I’m glad you two showed up, will make this a whole lot easier.”

 

* * *

 

A short while later Severin and Lukas arrive and are being shown the suspect flowerbed.

“So this is it then?” asks Lukas.

“Yes, probably the whole flowerbed, would have been an ideal way to conceal the turned earth if anyone came looking.” Replies Elias, causing Lukas to sigh.

“Well, at-least the estate is abandoned, this is going to take a while.”

 

* * *

Several hours later with dusk approaching they had uncovered one human and four dogs’ worth of remains.

“You could make my day and tell me there were only four sets of dog tracks Cassandra.” Says Elias

“Apologies but I’m not so skilled, telling you more than one is more educated guess than tracking expertise.” He sighs and Lukas hops out, offering a hand back to help Cassandra out of the uncovered shallow grave. Fortunately it seems that when it was dug those responsible hadn’t been able to dig very deep and had relied upon negligence and the raised nature of the flowerbed to conceal the bodies.

“Come on, we better go get the salt and lighter fluid. I want to be shot of here before it gets dark, since we haven’t seen him yet and all the attacks are at night-time He’s probably only able to manifest in the night.”

Halfway towards the gravel track where Severin’s silver Chrysler and Elias’ dark green Jeep had been left, a chorus of canine howls filled the air. Lukas winces and Elias breaks into a jog, muttering as the rest of the group follows suit.

“You had to jinx it didn’t you, so much for this being an easy job.”

“This was easy?” asks Severin.

“Sadly yes, know how to handle a shotgun?” Asks Lukas as they reach the car.

“Never touched one I’m afraid.” Admits Severin, Cassandra shakes her head as they glance to her.

“Great.” Mutters Lukas,

“No, this can work” Elias adds quickly. “Sev can carry these” He says as he passes a bag of salt and can of fluid over to him. “Cassie can use this,” he adds passing her an iron crowbar. “One of us not needing to reload isn’t a bad thing.” Lukas grunts an acknowledgement, picking up one of the two Serbu Super-Shorty's, a compact shotgun measuring only 16.5'' in length and able to fire one handed it was ideal in manoeuvrability for hunting anything that might fight back. They cock their guns as the dogs howl again this time much closer.

“Let’s make the run then” he says as he starts jogging back out. As they ran back over the field, Cassandra became very glad for the effort She’d put into her recovery, even so she felt her breath coming much faster already. Three weeks was not realistically enough to return her full stamina and allow her to be this energetic.

Elias’ shotgun booms twice and two Dobermans turn to dust. A third runs for Cassandra, mouth open in a blood thirsty snarl, she hesitates for a split second as the desire to flee wars for control. As it makes the final leap for her she swings the crowbar, the dust it turns to blowing past her as it dissipates. Hoof thuds draw her attention from the fore and she watches as Lukas raises the shotgun and shoots the horse, it whinnies loudly as it turns to dust, the sound seeming to echo even over the open field. The rider stuttered out of sight as the horse dusts, a second later he yells behind Cassandra and she spins round to see the 40 year old land owner, dark hair slicked back and rage contorting his features. His arm was drawn back as he prepares to stab Severin with his rapier. As a one they all turned to look at the pair, Severin paling and trying to twist out of the way, Elias halfway through reloading his shotgun, Lukas with his shotgun half raised having stopped when he realised Cassandra was in the way. Cassandra, without much thought other than a passing gratitude to Jehanne’s knights who passed a basic schooling of combat to her, flips the crowbar and steps forward with a backhanded strike any hockey player might have been happy with. Emmanuel turns to dust mid lunge as the crowbar passes through him. Sagging slightly Severin nods gratefully to her, she smiles in return. His mouth forms an ‘O’ of surprise and they turn to the direction he’s looking in time to see the fourth dog tackle Elias and knocking the shotgun out of his hands. He spins round bringing his arm up in time that the dog latches onto that instead of his throat. He grunts in pain as the dog rips at his arm for the moment it takes Lukas to line up his shotgun and fire. He reloads as Cassandra helps Elias up. He gives his arm only a passing glance to see it is not dripping alarmingly before picking the shotgun back up.

As they work their way across the field several things become apparent to those involved. Only Emmanuel seemed to have command of the usual ghost abilities, the dogs would merely charge forward to be dusted by shotgun or iron crowbar. This brings me to the second thing being noticed, by Severin who wasn’t busy fighting, as well as by Elias and Lukas who spared glances occasionally in order to make sure Cassandra Wasn’t being overwhelmed. What they saw was the slightly out of breath woman moving in practised and rhythmic steps to beat down the dogs, movements too defined for large amounts of skill, but clearly displaying a knowledge of hand and a half swordplay. Together the group make it to the uncovered shallow grave a dozen or so dusted ghosts later.

“Sev, get to it, salt and burn.” Lukas calls

“Right.” He drops the fluid can and cuts open the bag of salt with the penknife Elias throws him. As he scatters the salt Cassandra swings the crowbar through two of the dogs, Elias and Lukas get another two. Looking around for Emmanuel and the dogs’ return which seems to be taking a little longer than before. Severin finishes salting as Cassandra is flung sideways by Emmanuel who is surrounded by the dogs he now directs at Severin through the gap left by Cassandra. Elias and Lukas manage to hit Emmanuel and two of the dogs as Elias misses his second shot.

“Salt them Sev!” he calls out. Panicking Severin throws his arm out holding the corner of the salt bag causing all the remaining salt to fly out in a wide arc, dusting the remaining dogs.

“Cassie?” Lukas calls out, reloading as Severin starts spilling the lighter fluid.

“I'm good.” She pants out, picking herself up and jogging back over, dispatching another dog on the way.

“Light it!” Severin shouts half a second before Emmanuel sends him flying as well. One hand on his shotgun and the other fishing a lighter out Lukas dusts the dog leaping at him and tosses the lighter into the grave. As a one the hunting group screams and goes up in flames mid-attack. As the night fills with the gentle roar of the makeshift pyre Severin flops back to lying on the grass where he was thrown and mutters indistinctly.

“What was that?” Asks Elias

“I said you must be crazy to keep doing this” he calls out, raising his voice. Lukas laughs and answers.

“Frequently”

“I told you, you should have stayed at the chapel.” says Cassandra a little breathlessly, but a small grin non-the-less gracing her expression.

“You also said you couldn't manage this without me.” Sighing Cassandra nods and sits down heavily.

 

* * *

 

Sometime later after replacing the soil and cleaning up the four find themselves in a pub.

“So you're really a priest then? I guess that explains why you're drinking pop” Elias says

“A priest, two hunters and an Amnesiac walk into a bar. It’s like the set-up to a bad joke.” Lukas comments, smirking.

“Yeah, no kidding, so what's the deal with you two? You wanting to tag along and join this crazy ride?” Elias asks, Cassandra nods but Severin shakes his head and replies quietly.

“I can’t I'm afraid, I must return to my chapel in the morning, truth be told I probably shouldn’t have disappeared for this long on such short notice as it is.”

“That’s a shame” Lukas says, pausing to finish his drink, “You've got good reactions.”

“Just you and us then Cassandra?”

“If you'll have me”

“Of-course, what've you got to bring with you?”

“I come as you see me, no papers, no tools, just my brain and clothes.” Elias nods a little looking thoughtful.

“We know you speak French and German, speak any other languages?”

“Greek and English. Will my lack of papers be a problem?” he shakes his head.

“Give us a week or so and we can sort that out easy enough, swing back and pick you up.” Cassandra smiles and nods.

“What happens to ghosts when they're salted and burned like that?” asks Severin.

“We don’t know, none of them have ever made it back and told us, heck we don’t even know where those of us who don’t leave ghosts go so it's not really a fair question. You have issues with burning remains?” Lukas responds, Severin shakes his head, before speaking again.

“Are all the old legends true?” he asks.

“Some, not all of them” Elias answers as Lukas heads over to the bar. “Vampires only dislike sunlight, and we're pretty sure yetis are just people seeing wendigo's” Elias smiles a little at the slightly shell shocked Severin, Cassandra however seems to merely take this in her stride. Lukas, having just returned from the bar sets a set of shots down on the table.

“Enough with business, here's to your first hunt” He says, grinning at Cassandra as he slams his back and watches expectantly. Cassandra smiles at the alcohol, sniffing it experimentally before mimicking the motion, coughing a few seconds later as the whiskey hits her throat. They laugh and continue talking into the night.


	4. Dropping Hints

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this installment Severin makes a decision, while Cassandra, Elias, and Lukas take on a case of mysterious suicides constrained to one family in Zeitz. Naturally somehow they get tangled up in the problems occuring in Zeitz Germany and must work quickly before any damage that's too permenant is done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The town hall i describe actually exists and really does look that unusual. A picture can be found on the wiki page for Zeitz should anyone be so inclined as to find it.

Cassandra smiles pleasantly to herself, stood in the chapels kitchenette by the sink, she stacks the freshly dried dishes and looks round to Severin as he walks in.

“You didn’t have to clean up” He comments.

“It was no great effort, I wanted to do it.” He smiles and offers over a small box wrapped in green striped paper.

“Well, I have a late present for you.” Cassandra stares at the pro-offered box a moment.

“You should not have done so.” He smirks as she answers.

“Yes, well, I wanted to do it” He replies, matching her tone. “Go on, open it.” Sighing she smiles and unwraps the paper carefully so it could be used again. Lifting the lid off the box reveals a four inch dagger in a smart black sheath with greyish trim and banding. The handle bore a rounded pommel shaped to best fit in the hand. Underneath it was some straps, as she picked them up curiously Severin spoke up.

“Calf straps to clip to the sheath, it’s silver coated with a steel core, the banding on the sheath is iron, it should fit inside your boots. Hopefully it will be helpful.” She draws the blade and looks it over, letting it catch the light before sheathing it.

“It’s beautiful, Thank you” she says earnestly as she hugs him.

“Good.”

“I should go put this in my bag.” She walks through into her room, setting the duffel on the cot. With the knife now safely tucked away in it she stands, and turns to leave, nearly walking into Castiel.

“Cassandra.”

“Pleasure to see you Castiel, How are you?" She says, smiling.

“Well” he replies, looking around the cramped room. “I want your help.”

“I know.” Castiel looks back at her as she says this.

“You had a vision?”

“No, I just find it unlikely there was another reason for your visit. What can I do for you?” She tucks the duffel under the cot, sits on it, and pats the space next to her. He sits, looking mildly uncomfortable.

“I want you to look ahead.” She sighs.

“We have discussed this, anything I tell you, you will have a powerful notion to disbelieve. “

“I am an angel, different rules may apply.”

“You wish to test this theory.” She states.

“Yes.” Cassandra frowns and shakes her head a little.

“I am going to regret this. Give me your hand”

“I expected you to argue more.” He says warily as he gives her his hand.

“Would it make any difference?”

“No.” She nods.

“This was largely inevitable. You understand what I see will be some instance of violence connected to you and not some other theme? That ultimately it may be of little use to you?”

“I understand.” She nods and closes her eyes, slowing her breathing to near meditation state, before sending her mind’s eye out as her mother had taught her.

_A smattering of images greeted her, greyed out and shimmering, fragmented yet making sense as her brain filled in the details. A red haired woman, blood, pain, and exhaustion. A weird sense of temporal distortion flew over her, Conflict and death followed. All carried with a touch of inevitability and impermanence._

The world slammed back into her with the beginnings of a migraine. Letting Castiel's hand drop she puts her fingers to her temples and rubs.

“Cassandra?”

“Give me but a moment, it hurts when I do that is all, and I have yet to work out what to tell you.” Castiel frowns and waits, of course this is not the normal human waiting where the person gets distracted and gaze around absent mindedly, Castiel simply waited. A minute or two later she straightened.

“Okay, here is my message to you;

When fire betrayed returns anew,  
an end to things held dear is sought.  
Great strides to defend are took by you,  
but all efforts made will be for naught.  
For no great change will stick fast,  
and the attempt shall be fire’s last.”

“That makes no sense, what did you see?” He asks irritably.

“The point is not to tell you what I see. It is to tell you what you need to know, so at the right moment the message makes sense and you can make fist of it. You do not need to be cursed to have the avoidance of your prophecies result in them coming true.” She snaps.

“It would be easier to understand if you would explain properly.”

“I have no intention of explaining further. When the situation arises that rhyme will make sense. Would you like me to write it down for you?”

“No” Castiel replies with only a faint note of sourness. Cassandra sighs.

“Castiel, if you intend to trust my word on what I saw then trust me when I tell you this will make sense at the right moment and with time to act.”

“Apologies, you’re right.”

“Of course. It is also possible that the limited period of time you are properly aware will limit the damage of my curse.”

“Has that worked before?”

“No.” Cassandra sighs and looks down as she says this, before returning to meet his gaze and continues. “But there must be a first time for everything, let me know how you get on. I am leaving the chapel tomorrow for Zeitz. But Severin remains and will know where to contact me.” Castiel nods and stands, disappearing with the soft sound of clothes caught by strong wind.

* * *

The next day Cassandra was in Elias’ dark green Jeep headed to Zeitz, Germany.

“So, what is in Zeitz?” She asks.

“Not much, it’s a small town whose only claim to fame is being the location of a priest setting himself on fire to protest religious oppression. In terms of work for us though, there have been four suicides by jumping in the last month.”

“Is that unusual?”

“The method itself isn’t, but the big jumping locations get maybe 5 a month, and this is a small town. So what’s the next step chicky?”

“Ah, find what connects the unfortunates?” She volunteers, sounding uncertain, he nods.

“In this case that’s easy, they’re all related, which is the other oddity, four people from the same family. Lukas is in town at the moment tracking down the rest”. Cassandra nods gazing out the window.

“So someone has a problem with the family.”

“Probably, Lukas will have more when we get there. Oh, your new documents are in the glove box. Take a look.” He watches Cassandra flick through them out of the corner of his eye for a moment before continuing. “So you’re still sure this is what you want to do?” She looks up at him, mild puzzlement causing her to frown.

“Why should it not be?”

“This isn’t exactly an easy life to live, and it’s a hard one to walk away from if you change your mind. If you think you would ever want to stop, you should do so now. Later, you might well have upset too many things to be safe ‘retiring’.” She appears to consider this for a moment, knowing that her own situation means she’s already at the point of no-return, the speech was kind, but irrelevant. She ponders an answer that would placate him without explaining the complexities of her past to him.

“I think, that I would never rest were I to walk away. And that should I change my mind I will deal with the consequences then.” Elias nods looking satisfied.

“Good.”

* * *

The hotel room was bland, to be charitable, cream coloured walls, beige carpet and brown bedspread with off-white blinds hiding the darkened street outside. Lukas was already inside tapping on a laptop.

“Took you long enough” He says, Elias shrugs.

It's a long drive.”

“Hope you don't mind sharing a room with us, it’s not smart to sleep alone when you're a hunter. One of us can have the camp bed.” Cassandra smiles.

“I'd rather have it myself. I dislike the softer beds that seem more common now”

“Fair enough” Elias says dumping his duffel on the nearest bed. “What have we got so far then?”

“Four apparent suicides. Polizei didn’t start treating them as suspicious until the third one so the first two reports are thin. First suicide was 72 year old Konrad Reiniger, apparently he jumped off a footbridge and was hit by a truck. The second death was three days later, his daughter, 41, Sabine Strauss. She jumped from her office. Her husband was next, Tobias Strauss, he jumped off a multi-storey car park. And most recently was Julia Reiniger, her sister. She jumped off the top floor of the hospital. Tobias died in route to the hospital the others were DOA.”

“Different locations, probably not a ghost.”

“Yeah I scanned for EMF at all the locations, nothing.”

“What is EMF?” Cassandra asks.

“EMF or Electromagnetic Fields are generated by ghosts. Doesn’t always mean there is one, electric equipment makes them too. But it’s a good starting point.” Elias answers. “So, ghost possession is out, demon possession?”

“Could be” Lukas replies thoughtfully. “All the locations were exposed, if there was any sulphur it'd have blown away real easy. There's one surviving family member in the area, A Christa Strauss, Sabine's daughter.”

“We'll see her tomorrow and see if we can find out more about the family.” says Elias, Lukas nods

“Coroner will have toxicology reports back tomorrow as well.”

“Great”

* * *

The next day the trio walks up to the three storey house with dormers into the loft, the Reiniger family home. Set slightly back from the road and other houses, on the edge of town. It was an old red-brick house with black painted window frames and doors. A red-eyed woman of average height and with a blonde bob answers the door shortly after Lukas knocks on it.

“Miss Strauss? BKA Agent Saenger, Agent Wagner, and Agent Adler may we come in?” He says nodding to Elias and Cassandra in turn. The woman stares at them a moment before recovering.

“Oh, uhm, of course, come in.” Boxes dot the inside rooms, remnants of where someone started packing things up and then was distracted. They sit down in the sitting room. “I already talked to the polizei, I don’t know what else I can say”.

“Sometimes details can get missed in reports, we’d just like to ask some questions ourselves.” Elias explains. “Does your family have any enemies that you’re aware of?”

“No, none.” She answers

“And you haven’t noticed anything unusual over the last month? Any weird smells, feelings of being watched, cold spots?” Lukas chips in. She shakes her head. “What about your relatives. Did any of them start acting peculiar prior to their death?” She frowns a moment thoughtfully.

“What is it?” Prompts Elias

“It’s just, they were all upset, of course. But the day before they, died, they seemed relaxed, all of them. It’s odd, I never understood what had changed.” She explains, they nod at her words.

“Miss Strauss, can I please use your bathroom?” Elias asks.

“Yes, it’s just upstairs on the left.” Elias goes upstairs and Christa pulls a tissue to dab at her eyes “Thank-you.” Lukas and Cassandra frown, puzzled.

“For what?” Cassandra asks.

“You said death, not suicide. I know my family agents’, none of them would kill themselves.”

“I’m sorry.” Lukas reaches over to touch her shoulder as he says this.

“I’m going to be staying with a friend in a few days, you should take my phone number.” She gets up and fetches a fountain pen and a notepad on which she scribbles her name and a phone number. When she goes to hand the paper to Lukas she knocks the pen and it rolls off the table. “Sorry!” Smiling Lukas picks it up and hands it back to her.

“It’s okay, here.” Elias comes back downstairs and Lukas hands her a business card. “If you think of anything else, please don’t hesitate to call.” She nods.

“Please, find out what happened to my family” She says as they walk to the door.

“Thank you for your time Miss Strauss, We’re very sorry for your loss” Elias smiles sympathetically and shakes her hand as they leave. Once sat in the Jeep Elias turns to Cassandra. “So, have any questions?”

“It didn’t seem like we asked a great amount.” Lukas nods.

“We can’t ask everything we want to because some things seem too odd. Heck we ask about cold spots or sulphur and we get odd looks enough as it is. That’s why Elias went upstairs.”

“When I’m out of sight I get to do a quick search for any supernatural materials, scan for EMF and check for sulphur, which I found none of.”

“Really?” says a surprised Lukas “This looked like textbook possession.”

“How do you know she wasn’t possessed already?” Cassandra asks. Elias shakes his wrist revealing a dark grey bracelet with a cross charm that slips neatly into his palm.

“I shook her hand with this. Iron cross, both Ghosts and Demons aren’t too keen on it and will react, she didn’t.” Cassandra nods a little and glances out the window thoughtfully as Lukas checks his watch.

“It’ll be lunchtime when we get to the coroner’s office.” Lukas comments.

* * *

Several hours later in a busy café the three sit around a table with various sandwiches and coffee’s on it.

“So we still have nothing, no drugs, no suicide, and no EMF. I’m thinking, Family curse.” Lukas says, wiping some melted cheese that escaped his sandwich off his chin with a napkin.

“How do you go about lifting those?” Cassandra asks.

“Not a clue” replies Elias. “We’ve never actually ran across one before. Going to have to do some research on this one.” Lukas watches one of the waitress’s, a short brunette with a small ponytail. Red eyes and no mascara or eye-liner yet still wearing lipstick. He stands.

“Be back in a few.” Lukas walks over to the waitress and steps to one side with her, talking. Elias turns his attention back to Cassandra.

“So how are you with research? Because while you may have caught us in the middle of destroying a ghost, what we do is normally about 90% paperwork and interviews.”

“Paperwork is not a problem.” She takes a sip of her tea. “Interviews, as it stands I would not have a clue where to begin.” Elias smiles.

“We’ll get you there chicky. It’ll take a while but you’ll get there.” Lukas wanders back over after a minute and sits back down.

“Well that was interesting, turns out the reason they initially wrote the first death off as suicide was because a week before Konrad threw himself off a bridge his wife Agnes had died from a heart attack.” He explains.

“So they all assumed it was grief” Cassandra replies, Lukas nods and continues.

“Anne over there feels particularly guilty, apparently she grew up with Sabine and told her she didn’t believe her when Sabine told her it wasn’t suicide. Two days later Sabine jumped from her office.”

“So Sabine might be the link between everyone but Agnes was the trigger.” Elias muses.

* * *

Meanwhile in France. Severin sits in the lounge of one of his parish’s more elderly patrons that he regularly visits. Pastel Floral sofa’s surround a paisley rug, peach walls and cream carpets complete the room, which is filled with the unmistakable scent of a house that has cats. Martha, sat opposite, was 82. Her grey hair was tightly curled and wore a blue pin-spotted dress.

“Anyway Oscar was going round and round this balloon that our Ellie had left here the day before, chasing the knot and batting it round. When all of a sudden it goes boom, and….”

The story continued, and Severin took care to keep his expression attentive. The story wasn’t any more interesting than the last three, but it wouldn’t do to let her know that. Usually Severin didn’t have much difficulty feigning interest in Martha’s stories, even the ones she’d told several times before.

“… So Marmaduke, having trounced Oscar, picks up the remains of the popped balloon and trots over, looking ever so smug, to drop his prize in my lap.”

Severin smiled and sipped his watery tea, usually he’d use the occasion to pick out hymns or consider topics for the week’s sermon but his mind refused to focus enough to do so today. Martha was one of a few elderly members of the church who were more or less housebound, but by far not the most interesting.

“… So Lilly’s hanging there back end swinging as she struggles to get the rest of her over the edge of the linen basket…” Severin dutifully smirks at the tale. “Would you like some more tea father?” Severin looked at his tea cup to find it already empty. Normally he managed to nurse the cup for much longer. He sighed inwardly, if he left early it would be noted.

“Oh, ah. Yes please Martha.” He says, resigning himself to more watery tea.

* * *

The next day, Lukas, Elias, and Cassandra sit in a small café drinking coffee and eating pancakes, bacon butty, and oatmeal respectively. A heavy metal guitar riff with heavy drums sounds from Lukas’ pocket as his phone rings. He sets down his cutlery and answers it.

“Hello?”

“Agent Saenger? This is Chief Meyer.”

“What can we do for you Chief?”

“You should probably come down to the town hall. There’s been another jumper.” He frowns and pulls out a wallet, pulling some notes out to cover the breakfast.

“Who jumped do you know?”

“Nadine Oster, she’s a lawyer “

“Alright we’ll see you there in a few minutes.”

A short while later the group’s dark green Jeep pulls up outside the town hall. The town hall was a relatively plain beige walled building until one looked at the red roof and saw the elaborate gilding on the five dormers, so much so that whoever designed it had extended the wall on the dormers far above their roof to contain the gilding. By all accounts it was an odd building. Three polizei cars, a cluster of journalists and the ME van loitered nearby. As they walked up to the crime-scene, three people in suits, a blonde woman her hair cut close and with tanned skin in a polizei uniform walked up to them.

“Morning Agent Saenger, These your friends?” Lukas smiles and nods, gesturing to the others as they hold up ID.

“These are agents Wagner and Adler” He says gesturing to Elias and Cassandra in turn.

“Pleasure” She says shaking their hands. “Let’s get to it shall we then? The woman’s name is Nadine Oster, She’s a lawyer that lives on east side of town. Met her more than a few times, Can’t say I saw this coming. She’s a devout catholic, killing herself wouldn’t be something she’d do but camera’s inside say that’s just what she did.”

“You had cameras on the roof?” Elias asks.

“Not on the roof, but one of the ones inside covered the window she climbed out of and caught her falling off the roof a minute later.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean she was a suicide though.” Elias replies, causing Officer Meyer to shrug.

“Well I don’t like it, but if it quacks like a duck…. Come in and have a look at the camera’s yourself.”

Cassandra and Elias sit in the security room watching the security tape while Lukas goes up to the room Nadine climbed out of. The Grainy film shows the smart looking brunette woman with her hair in a bun walk into the room, set her briefcase down on the desk. She gazes out the window for a long moment, before walking over to it, opening it, slipping off her heels and climbing out of the window and out of sight.

“So much for a family curse then.” Cassandra comments.

“Seems like, she must have some connection to the family though, we’ll have to find it.” Elias paused the video as Nadine appeared falling past the window. She appeared halfway between horizontal and vertical, her arms held out to either side. “Certainly doesn’t look like she was pushed, so why’d she jump.” They go upstairs to join Lukas.

Lukas is staring out the open window as they arrive.

“Anything useful in the video?” He asks, they shake their heads.

“What about up here?” Cassandra asks as they move over to join him at the window to have their hushed conversation.

“No EMF no Sulphur but,” Lukas picks up a sheet of paper from a pile of what appears to be the contents of Nadine’s briefcase. “I know how she’s involved. This is paperwork for the last will and testament of a Tobias Strauss.” A look of understanding dawned on their faces.

“She was the family’s lawyer.” Elias says.

“So this is still tied to the family then, but what is causing this?” Cassandra asks.

“Could be a witch” Lukas muses. “Some grudge, or profit to gain from the family being wiped out, maybe Nadine stumbled onto something.”

“Well if she did there’ll be a hex bag somewhere, let’s see if we can find one.” Elias decides as they go to leave the room. Lukas is the last to leave, gazing out the window for a long moment before joining them.

* * *

Sometime later they are eating lunch in a coffee-shop, mostly deserted since lunch time was a fair while ago, seated in an unpopular table in the back corner of the shop. Sandwiches and coffee in various early stages of consumption covered the table.

“So, Witches. Are we talking about ordinary humans who just hex people?” Cassandra asks having finally gotten a moment to sit down and discuss it.

“They don’t just Hex, what they can do varies a lot depending on their power level. Hexing seems most common though. From what we figure they seem to get their power from demon deals.” Elias explains.

“So they leave these hex pouches near someone and then that person attempts to kill themselves?”

“Sometimes, they can be pretty darned creative though” Lukas answers, pausing to take a drink of coffee. “I once talked to a hunter who works more out east, she told me that one witch she came across hexed three people. One of them was found partially eaten by ants, another somehow had a garage door decapitate him, and the third drowned in soap.” Cassandra winces at the descriptions and absently scratches her arm, the talk of ants creating phantom itches.

“By contrast using the same method every time and making people jump to the death is twisted, but relatively mundane.” Elias muses. “And we didn’t find any hex bags in her car or home.”

“That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any though” Lukas says, gesturing with his sandwich before taking a bite. Elias raises an eyebrow and Cassandra sits back, waiting for the rest of the sentence. “If a witch knew hunters were in town they could have gotten there first and removed the bag, or maybe we just didn’t look in the right place.”

“Perhaps” She says.

“The way I see it, there’s only one person who currently stands to gain from the deaths, and if she doesn’t, then she’s still probably next on the list.” Lukas Continues

“You want to go back and be more thorough with Christa” Elias states, rubbing his beard ponderously.

“She said she was staying with a friend so she might not even be there.” Elias smirks a little at that.

“If she is -you’ll- have to come up with a reason for being there.” He replies, causing Lukas to laugh.

“Alrighty then.”

* * *

The infant looked up at Severin with her big blue eyes and patted sticky hands over his shirt in her exploration of what buttons were. Severin looked down at the troublesome infant with dismay and gave up trying to distract her.

“Claire? Could you bring some wet-wipes through with you please?”

“Yes, I should have some here somewhere.” The sounds of rummaging followed from the kitchen, Severin looked briefly around the living room on the off-chance the mislaid wet-wipes were already in here, they were not. “Ah, found them” Claire calls from the hallway. “Peter had buried them at the bottom of the travel-bag.” The tall woman with a blonde bob walked into the living room a moment later carrying a tray with mugs of tea, a plate of assorted biscuits, a bottle of milk, and much to Severin’s delight the packet of wet-wipes. Taking one he proceeds to clean the now protesting infant’s hands.

“There, now you won’t be getting sticky all over my shirt” he tells her, smiling. The infant glares at him for a moment before stubbornly stuffing her fingers in her mouth, covering them with saliva, and returning to playing with the buttons. Severin sighs and Claire laughs.

“She must like you.” She says, Severin smiles exasperatedly at the infant before mentally shaking himself.

“So you have decided on all the details for Louise’s christening then?” He asks mildly, carefully choosing a plain biscuit for Louise who happily forgets the buttons and begins gumming it. Claire nods.

“Yes, both God-parents have the date and we have a lovely christening gown, let me go and get it you should see it” she smiles and walks upstairs. Severin smiles and carefully drinks some tea, stopping hastily when Louise starts coughing and making noises that usually indicate tears will soon follow. Severin looks down at her in panic, before spotting the milk bottle on the other side of the table as his salvation. Putting Louise against his shoulder he stands up to go and get it, freezing as she coughs properly and is suddenly happier. As the damp patch seeps through his shirt he sags, turning around to see Claire in the doorway, hand over her mouth trying not to laugh, he sighs.

* * *

The group parked their dark green Jeep next to a Mini parked in front of the door, which was open. Lukas stares at the mini and door for a moment before sighing, Elias grins.

“Need some help?” He asks, Lukas shakes his head

“Nah I got this.” He says sighing, they get out of the Jeep and walk to the door, Lukas leans inside and knocks on the door. “Miss Strauss?” He calls out to no response. Frowning the boys pull guns and advance inside.

“Christa?” Elias calls out as they clear the ground floor and move up the stairs. They clear the first floor silently and halfway through the second they hear a movement in the loft, the stairs of which had been left down. Lukas carefully climbs up the stairs and pokes his head over the lip, looking around and frowning in puzzlement when he sees Christa alone with her back to them, appearing pre-occupied.

“Christa? Is everything okay?” He says putting the gun away and climbing the rest of the way into the loft, allowing the others to follow suit as she turns and smiles at them.

“Oh, Yes. Everything’s going to be fine.” She smiles serenely at them, seeming quite distanced from the distraught woman they met a day ago, before returning her gaze to its original destination, the open dormer window. They follow the direction of her attention, Lukas staring out of the window as well for a moment, taking half a step forward towards Christa before Elias stops him, not wanting to spook Christa.

“Why don’t you come downstairs, we’d like to talk to you for a moment.” He asks carefully.

“In a moment.” She turns and walks confidently towards the window.

“Christa stop!” Cassandra calls out, to their surprise she does, and looks over her shoulder, turning halfway back towards them. “Whatever you think is awry we can help, please, come down the stairs and talk with us.” Christa shakes her head calmly.

“No, you don’t understand, you can’t, but I do. They did it wrong, I understand that now, I can do it right.” She says, backing towards the window as she speaks.

“Do what?” Elias says moving forward as quickly as he dares to grab her.

“Look, Look and see” She says practically grinning, before turning around and sprinting for the window, diving through it and spreading her arms out to the side, shortly before dropping three and a half floors. Elias and Cassandra are a second behind her, getting to the window in time to see her lying with one arm and a leg at odd angles to the rest of her on the back lawn. Elias winces and looks away, but Cassandra stares, horrified, and just long enough to catch the shift as the broken woman takes in an unsteady breath.

“Lands sake, she’s still alive.” She exclaims causing Elias to swear inventively as he pulls his phone out.

“We’ll have about five minutes, I’ll take ground and first, Lukas takes second and the loft, if there’s a hex bag find it, Cassie go stay with her.” He snaps out as he dials and puts the phone to his ear. “I need an ambulance to 42 Village grove Road….”

* * *

A short while later the ambulance carrying Christa Strauss had dashed on its way to the hospital with the critically injured but amazingly still alive woman on-board. Chief Meyer, Elias, Lukas and Cassandra are in the loft again. A couple of Crime scene technicians can be heard walking through the downstairs of the house having already finished with the attic.

“So you’re telling me that she didn’t say anything, just heard you looking for her and dove out of the window.” The rather sceptical police chief enquires. Elias shrugs

“Can’t tell you any different I’m afraid.” He replies. Chief Meyer glances over to the window as Lukas walks to it.

“She’s lucky,” She says shaking her head “If that fall hadn’t been onto grass or had been a few feet higher, maybe landed differently.” She sighs. “As it is they don’t know if she’ll pull through but she’s had the best chance of the lot. What were you coming here for anyway?”

“Wanted to ask her if she’d met Nadine recently, and what she acted like if she had.”

“Well, hopefully she pulls through and can answer that for you, I gotta get back and write up my report. I’m sure I’ll see you again at some point.” She says sounding resigned before heading down the stairs. Elias sighs and pinches his brow.

“There’s no hex bags, no coins, and definitely no-one pushing her.” Cassandra frowns watching him. “There’s not a great deal left that could have caused this, and with the last member of the family probably going to die of her injuries just like Tobias I don’t see where else we can go with this…” Elias trails off as he spots Lukas, stood next to the window with a dreamy distracted expression on his face, quite different from the expected frustration. “Lukas?” He calls out, Lukas doesn’t react, his mind clearly elsewhere. “Lukas!” Elias snaps, causing him to startle and look round.

“What?” He turns round scowling.

“We’re going back to the hotel, come on.” Elias says, watching Lukas carefully.

“Yeah, alright.” He replies, throwing one last look to the window as he heads to the loft stairs.

* * *

Elias opens the door to their hotel room with a firm hand on Lukas’ shoulder he pushes him inside.

“Eli, what the hell man?” Elias points at the nearest bed.

“Sit.” He says commandingly. Cassandra sighs.

“Are you going to explain what’s going on now?” she asks.

“What were you thinking just then in that loft?” Elias barks at Lukas.

“I was thinking we probably should have gone there before we had lunch.” Elias sighs.

“I mean specifically when you were staring out the darned window like you were on cloud nine.”

“Oh, I was thinking it’s a really pretty view.”

“It was a view of an acre of farmland!”

“It was pretty farmland!”

“And you’re uneasy around heights since that incident with the shifter in Austria”

“Uneasy isn’t reason enough to avoid them.” Lukas replies. Elias sighs and Cassandra turns her attention from Lukas back to him.

“He’s been affected by the same thing they were hasn’t he?” She asks mildly.

“It’s a safe bet.” He replies

“And you have no idea what that was.” Lukas frowns as he watches the exchange between Cassandra and Elias.

“Oh I have an idea now, I just don’t like it.” Elias grumbles.

“Come on, I’m fine. Really.” Lukas butts in, going ignored.

“I reckon we’ve run into a cursed object, something Agnes was probably keeping locked up. Which means we have to work out what it is, which is hard because it could be anything.” Cassandra winces and Elias rounds on Lukas who was using the distraction to attempt to leave. He’s forced back to sitting down by Elias. “What did you touch while we were in that house, because it’s the only connection so it –has- to be there.”

“Really, you’re making a fuss over nothing.” Lukas says sounding amused by their antics, Elias sighs.

“Cassie?”

“Ah, knocked on the door, sat on the couch, she was really upset so he touched her shoulder, she wrote her number on a card, and then we left.” Cassandra pauses thoughtfully, before remembrance lights her expression. “No, wait, she dropped the pen and Lukas picked it up for her.”

“I doubt it was the cardigan so it’ll be the pen, what did it look like?”

“I can show you.”

“No, you’re staying here making sure he doesn’t do something dumb.”

“You want -me- to stop -him-?” Cassandra says incredulously.

“You don’t know how to deal with this and your German still has a French accent, you can’t go back there.” Elias says with exasperation, Cassandra shakes her head.

“That is not my problem, Lukas is at least twice as strong as me, if he attempts to get past me I cannot stop him.” She points out, Elias seems to consider this for a moment before grabbing something from his duffel, dragging Lukas over to the radiator, and cuffing him to it. Cassandra smirks, “That should help.” She says sounding amused.

“Hey!” Lukas exclaims, struggling briefly against the cuffs that bind him. “Damnit get these off me. I’ll sit still.” Lukas calls out indignantly.

“Then you may as-well sit still there.” Elias tells Lukas before turning his attention to Cassie. “I’ll try not to take too long.” She nods.

“I’ll be here” she replies. Elias grins at Lukas as he opens the door before waving to Cassandra and walking out.

“Sit tight!” he calls as the door shuts, Lukas glowers before looking to Cassandra appraisingly. She sighs.

* * *

Elias pulls up at the Reiniger house as his phone rings, duelling banjo’s announcing the call he sighs and pulls it out.

“Evening.”

“Agent Wagner? Your partner isn’t answering his phone.”

“Chief Meyer, He’s just turned his phone off, headache. What can we do for you?”

“Well I don’t quite believe it but Christa made it through surgery, she’s got a handful of broken bones but they think she’ll make it now.”

“That’s good news” Elias says, genuinely happy to hear it. “I assume she isn’t conscious yet?”

“No, she won’t be ‘till tomorrow, got her handcuffed to the bed at the moment, not that it’s needed, she won’t be going anywhere with any amount of ease.”

“Hopefully she doesn’t feel the need to do anything drastic when she wakes up.”

“Well they say most jumpers regret their decision halfway down so we can hope”. She says sounding tired, she sighs and continues. “Anyway I thought you’d like to know. “

“Thanks Chief. Let me know if she tells you anything interesting when she wakes up.”

“Will do, be safe.” She says before hanging up, Elias tucks the phone away and heads inside. One of the police had locked the door and sealed it with some sticky tape. Budgets didn’t run to keeping a police car stationed at a jumper’s house overnight, so instead they made do with proving someone had entered. Elias cut the tape over the lock and picked it, stepping inside he closed the door quietly behind him, and really hoped the fountain pen was still in the sitting room.

* * *

Cassandra sat in the hotel room’s chair and flicked through the pair’s hunting journal. The handwriting was in places appalling, and took a fair amount of concentration. Reading German was never easy for her, and the language had changed significantly since she last had call to read German.

“You know I could really use the bathroom if you want to unlock these cuffs.” Lukas comments, Cassandra sighs.

“Even were I inclined to release you I could not, Elias took the key with him”, she replies without looking up. The lie flowing easily, it was easier to say she couldn’t rather than deal with the inevitable argument of why she should.

“Then what am I supposed to do?” He says indignantly. Cassandra picks up an empty pop bottle from the bin next to the chair and tosses it to him.

“I believe that should solve your problem, I promise not to look.” Lukas grumbled and Cassandra went back to reading about Skinwalkers. Sounds of clanking and shuffling came from Lukas’ corner, she attempted to ignore the noises instead focusing on the account of a skinwalker pack in Norway. The account detailed a pack who’d taken to killing hunters, the regular kind, who passed through their ‘territory’. Cassandra paused, it occurred to her that it had gone too quiet, and none of the bottle using sounds had manifested. She looked up in time to see Lukas about a foot away, she hadn’t heard him move at all, however being impressed lasted a mere moment though before irritation and wariness took hold. She stood up sharply, tossing the journal onto the chair.

“How did you get yourself loose?”

“Neither of you checked me for lock picks, didn’t take me long.” She nods resignedly.

“So now the problem you have is me.” She states.

“I don’t want to hurt you, step out of my way.” Cassandra sighs and subtly widens her stance.

“Listen to what you just said, I am your friend and you have just told me that you’ll hurt me.” She says with a carefully level voice and a faint hope that he’ll see reason.

“You’re the ones who locked me up, I don’t think I’m being that unreasonable. Please move I don’t want to hurt you.” He replies, voice low and controlled.

“Sit down, shut-pan, and wait for Elias or you shall have to, I promised to do my utmost to keep you here.” Lukas considers this for a second before lunging forward and trying to get a grip on Cassandra. She ducks the first swipe, and sidesteps the second, barely fast enough to miss them. If this fight continued without a lucky break it would be over very quickly she realised as she blocked the next swipe. Momentarily distracted by the pain in her forearm Lukas gets his other arm around her neck in classic choke-hold. Grimacing in pain she hooks her left foot behind his and tries to trip him, but lacks the leverage to pull it off. Struggling as dizziness begins to set in she manages to slam her head back into his and break his nose. Lukas lets go, staggering backward both hands going to his nose as Cassandra gasps for air. Lukas growls and dashes back towards her, using all of her speed Cassandra ducks under his arms and throws her weight into the punch she aims at his gut. His breath hisses out but she hesitates a moment too long too close and he grabs her arm, spinning her round and throwing her into the second bed. She hits her head in the process, dazed and collapsed between the two beds. She groans and tries to clear her head, and hears Lukas take a couple of steps away before hearing his voice, filled with bewilderment.

“What the hell?” He exclaims.

“ ‘lias stop him!” Cassandra calls out from her spot between the beds, her view of what’s happening blocked both by them, and the dizziness that makes trying to get up unwise. She props herself up on her elbows and looks over her shoulder in time to see Lukas collapse in a manner similar to a concertina. Cassandra groans and puts a hand to her head. “Nice timing Eli-,” Cassandra pauses mid word having just managed to pull herself upright enough to see over the bed and witness the bewildered and tired looking Castiel staring down at Lukas. “Castiel?”

“Why were you fighting?” He asks, looking over from the now unconscious Lukas.

“Because I was trying to stop him making a die of it.” She answers, crawling over to where Lukas lays. She removes his belt and flips him onto his stomach as Castiel watches.

“What are you doing?”

“Making sure he cannot do that again.” She answers as she uses the belt to tie Lukas’ elbows together. He watches as she takes her own belt off and uses it to tie his ankles together before sitting back against the bed. “What can I do for you today?” she asks, resting her head back and fighting the nausea.

“Uh, are you alright?” He asks

“I’ll be right as rain in an hour or two.” Cassandra replies, he nods.

“You were right; I understood your riddle and went anyway. I am, surprised, to have made it back.”

“That is what will happen any time I tell you something, if I keep telling you, you’ll stop finding individual reasons. You’ll instead become convinced that -I- cannot be trusted, and that extends to far more than my prophecies.” She pauses and meets Castiel’s gaze properly before continuing, her tone changing to something far more befitting an oracle for the next few words. “It has happened before and it -will- happen again.” Cassandra winces and sighs. “Would you kindly pass me something cold from the icebox?” Castiel opens the small fridge and passes over a bottle of beer which Cassandra puts to the slowly forming bump on her forehead.

“I’m not sure how you could help now.” He admits.

“I am sure something will come up and when it does I shall be here.” She glances to Lukas as he begins to stir. “You should be going, this isn’t a side of my life that I am ready to explain to them just yet.” She says, looking back up she finds Castiel already gone.

  
  


* * *

An hour or so later Elias walks back into the hotel room having destroyed the cursed pen, and pauses upon seeing Lukas trussed up and gagged in a corner of the room.

“mmf mm mm mmm” Lukas mumbles sullenly.

“What happened to the handcuffs?” Elias asks, looking to Cassandra sat on the bed with a damp flannel on her forehead. “And what happened to your head.”

“Lock picks.” She says without looking up.

“Ah.” Elias glances back to Lukas before saying. “That doesn’t explain the gag.”

“When he regained consciousness he was quite vexed and vented his displeasure at being thwarted. I had a headache, still do.” She sighs and sits up, taking the flannel from her forehead as she does, showing the bruise. Elias winces as he spots it before bending down and un-gaging Lukas.

“Lucid?”

“Yes.” He replies curtly.

“No desire to go sky diving?”

“I hate heights.” He says vehemently causing Elias to laugh.

“Good” Elias says before reaching to undo the belt round Lukas’ arms.

* * *

Several hours later take out boxes fill the hotel room’s table, two bottles of beer and an empty sit on the table next to a bottle of apple juice, which is in front of Cassandra. Elias laughs.

“Taken down by a woman half your size, that is impressive”. Elias says while laughing.

“Hey, Cassie’s real fast, I could barely get hold of her”. Lukas says, defending himself, “And it’s not like I was in my right mind either.”

“Excuses excuses.” Elias replies, grinning.

“He’s not wrong, though even then I was barely fast enough with the book, more luck than skill that it hit him.” Cassandra adds, smiling happily.

“That’s what happened? I don’t remember it like that” Lukas says frowning.

“I render you unconscious and you expect a perfect recall?” She replies smirking. Elias takes a drink of his beer while Cassandra talks.

“Mmm.” He mumbles, swallowing and raising the bottle. “To Cassandra’s lucky aim.”

* * *

Severin sits in the study, he sighs looking over the hymn sheets, willing his mind to focus on them when his phone rings again, with Cassandra’s new number displayed on it. He smiles, putting aside the hymn sheets as he answers the phone.

“Cassandra, how are you?”

“Bruised but good. I’ve a lot to learn, I do not much like being this ignorant.” She sighs.

“I’d have thought you to be used to it already given the level of technological changes?”

“Perhaps” She admits. “But this is different, I cannot help but wonder whether my ancestors did us a service or not hiding our lineage from this side of the world.”

“Why did they hide then? Surely the contact would have helped lift the curse.” He asks, causing Cassandra to laugh hollowly.

“Think of how many power plays would have ended up attempting to involve us. No, it was better this way I just wish the knowledge of those other than us had been passed down as well. I suspect it was decided to ensure that no wanderlust filled child went looking for trouble.” Cassandra pauses to mentally shake herself and lose the bitterness in her voice before continuing. “How are you though? You sound… agitated.”

“It’s nothing” Severin looks up and waves at Margot as she enters the study. “It has just been a long day.”

“Well unless your day involved having to tie someone up with their own belt I think I have you beaten.” Severin laughs causing Margot to look over from the bookshelf.

“No, you definitely beat me there.” Margot stops what she’s doing to turn and smile smuggly at the amused Severin. “One moment” he says into the phone. “What is it?” he asks Margot, she smiles innocently.

“Oh nothing, I just think that’s the first time I’ve heard you laugh all week.” She picks up her book from the shelf and leaves.

“Severin? Is everything alright?” Cassandra asks through the phone. “I can dial you tomorrow if that would be more convenient.”

“No, no. Margot just wandered in was all.”

“Ah, how is she?”

“Well.” Cassandra pauses for a moment and there’s an uncomfortable silence before she replies.

“What are you doing?”

“Attempting to choose hymns for my next service.” He admits without any enthusiasm, glancing over at the messy stack.

“Ah, thrilling.” She replies.

“Not really.” Severin sighs, his expression softening with resignation, before hardening with something akin to determination as he makes the decision that will change the rest of his life.

“I’m coming out there to join you.”

  
  



	5. Dead Meat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this episode Severin leaves home, Elias and Lukas prove that even seasoned hunters can be idiots and Cassandra gets a taste of things to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know there's a long gap between updates... had a bad case of writers block on episode 7 which slowed me down considerably. All done now though, finally.

****   


 

It’s a bright but cold day in Avallon, France. New spring buds and leaves decorate the deciduous plants in the church’s grounds, any morning dew or mist long since banished by the sun that lies high overhead. Odd paced thumps and grunts sound from the corner of the grounds which Elias, Lukas, and Cassandra have laid claim to in order to spar. Lukas is throwing punches and going for holds while Cassandra does her best to avoid them. Clearly they’ve been at this a while, Cassandra’s dark grey tracksuit bottoms and tank, which should have been insufficient for the chill in the air, had tell-tale dark patches. Of course Lukas looked as fresh as a daisy, all-be-it a rather wet one, in his jeans and tee.

He throws a jab to Cassandra’s head which she barely managed to step back fast enough to avoid, Lukas quickly follows up with a sucker punch to her gut, pulling it at the last moment. Elias winces and calls out.

“Don’t just step backwards, move off the line of attack!”

Lukas switches to some easier to avoid punches so as to keep the rhythm while allowing Cassandra a small respite to recover from being winded. A light splattering of bruises cover the exposed skin in varying degrees of age and size. She winces as the block she throws up to his hay-maker connects with one of them.

“Don’t block if you can avoid it, he can’t hit you if you aren’t there, and there’s plenty stronger than he’s hitting you.” Elias admonishes, he glances over his shoulder to see Severin strolling across the grounds carrying several bottles and a couple of Tupperware tubs. He grins and looks back to the sparring pair. “Take a break, we got company.”

The pair break apart and walk tiredly to the grass ridge Elias sits on, Cassandra flops down and lays back on the grass, tiredness betraying her more accustomed method of speech.

“I swan this is far removed from the last time I had any combat training.” She says breathlessly to the sky

“Yeah?” asks Lukas, grinning and breathing hard, mumbling a thanks to Severin as he takes a bottle of sports drink from him and draining half of it.

“Yes, though I suspect it is in large part due to their unease at hitting a woman that mostly all I learnt were sets.”

“Sets?” Elias asks as Cassandra takes a long drink from her bottle.

“Mmm, practised movements in sequence?” She offers, pulling her coat over her shoulders as she cools down.

“Ah, katas.” He nods, “Useful if you can drill them into muscle memory.” Cassandra frowns, puzzled, causing Elias to look confused. “Muscle memory?” he asks, she shakes her head. “Ah crap, how do I explain that.” He muses.

“I can do that” Severin chips in, “it’s like when you walk, you do not think about moving your legs or correcting balance, you just, walk.” Cassandra smiles and nods, looking enlightened.

“So what’s the word on the transfer Severin?” Asks Lukas.

“Finalised, Father Beaudin is settled in at a hotel and will take residence in the chapel within the week, after which I will have to stay with you.” Elias nods.

“What did you tell them was your reason for leaving?”

“Ah, personal is all the form says. Though people are assuming it is because I have inappropriate feelings towards Cassandra, and I see no reason not to let that be the assumption.” Severin looks to Cassandra questioningly and she nods in answer to the unspoken request for her permission.

“Inappropriate feelings?” Asks Lukas only to be smacked on the shoulder by Elias.

“Catholic priests are celibate.”

“Oh. So are you going to join us for practice?”

“Well I…” He stammers

“Should go and get changed and we’ll show you the ropes,” Elias interrupts.

“Yes, but…”

“It would give them a change from assailing me.” Cassandra crowbars in. Severin looks between the three before smiling exasperatedly.

“Let me go and get something more comfortable then.”

 

* * *

 

The next morning over cereal, bacon and eggs, Cassandra and Lukas eat breakfast in the hotel café while Elias clicks away on this laptop in-between drinking coffee. It is a small bland café that would be best described as ‘fit for purpose’, but at least the food looked good.

“Huh” he says, pausing on whatever page he’s looking at. “Think I’ve got something.” He looks up at the other two, Lukas takes a drink of his orange juice and leans back in his chair.

“Okay, hit me.” He says holding his arms out expansively.

“Missing person in Durbuy Belgium.” Elias begins.

“Person singular? Not usually our thing.” Lukas replies.

“Signs of a struggle and an ‘alarming’ amount of blood on the scene.”

“Still fairly standard stuff.” Lukas comments. Cassandra smiles, watching the back and forth.

“Which was the towns graveyard.” Elias continues.

“Suspicious but still relatively mundane”

“Where Albert Servais had been recently hired as security.” Lukas pauses, toast soldier halfway to his mouth.

“Alright, I’ll bite, what had him working the graveyard shift?”

“Your bad pun aside, apparently the church had suffered some grave robberies. He was probably supposed to scare off or catch who was doing them. Looks like he found out.”

“Creepy and close by, worth a look in at least.” Lukas decides, eating the last of his toast.

“I will see if Severin is able to accompany us then.” Cassandra adds before draining her tea.

 

* * *

 

Severin’s silver Chrysler pulls up outside the Durbuy police station and produces him and Elias. Severin sighs and anxiously straightens his suit, Elias smiles as he waits at the curb for him.

“Remember, just relax, act confident and watch how it’s done. Jump in if you have something to say though.” Severin nods and rearranges his expression.

“Okay, I don’t much like having to lie though, how is it that this much of the world remains hidden?” Elias shrugs and explains as they walk.

“Combination of things; people don’t want to believe, monsters like the anonymity, and those of us who do know tend to have shorter lifespans.” He answers, “It’s a waste of time trying to convince someone of the truth without some pretty drastic proof to hand.” He voice despite the smile. Severin nods resignedly.

Inside the police station phones rang loudly and officers moved with the half-hurried pace of someone who knows that all the time in the world wouldn’t be enough to get everything done. Severin and Elias show their badges to the officer on the front desk.

“Interpol Agents Brun and Deniau.” Elias introduces. “We’re looking for the officer in charge of investigating Albert Servais’ disappearance.” The desk officer looks over their shoulder at the short, stern looking, raven haired woman who had walked up behind them.

“You’ve found her, I’m Sergeant Inés Fabron.” She scowls at them. “Not here to steal my case are you guys?” Elias coughs nervously before answering.

“No ma’am, we’d just like a look at the case file and any other pertinent information so we can rule out this disappearance being part of a pattern. The investigation itself remains yours.” She glances sternly between them for a moment before her expression relaxes, betraying the weariness she was hiding.

“Better come with me then hadn’t you.” She says, turning and walking away, leaving the pair to follow her to her small office. She sits down behind her desk to pull a new looking case file out of her drawer, passing it to them she then gestures to the cork-board on the wall. “If you need to make copies the machine is outside in the corridor to the left. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got things to do. Leave the file on the chair when you’re done.” She says, barely waiting for Elias’ thank-you before leaving. He smiles.

“I like her.”

“You do?” Severin asks, sounding puzzled.

“ H’yup, dedicated. Nice to see.” Severin nods in understanding and takes the selection of papers Elias hands him. “What am I looking for?”

“Just mention anything that stands out to you. There’s often discrepancies or oddities even though people like to rationalise them away.”

After sifting through paperwork for a while Elias eventually speaks up.

“Huh.” Severin looks over. “Okay this is an example of odd things to look out for. It says here that they believe he went with his captors under his own steam. They suspect he injured his attacker before being restrained and that blood tests will eventually confirm it not to belong to him.” Severin frowns.

“Why would he be left in a mobile state if he could do that much damage?”

“Exactly, I’d doubt his ability to do so as well, they ruled out someone dragging him off because there was no drag marks, and ruled out someone carrying him because he was 250lbs, which wasn’t muscle. Aside from the weight he’d have been easy prey.”

“Alright that follows, but you’ve ruled out all the ways for him to leave the cemetery now.” Severin points out.

“Only the human ways.” Elias stands up and claps Severin on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s get our copies and meet up with the others.”

 

* * *

 

Cassandra strolls among marble and granite headstones in the suspect graveyard, neat and well maintained it paints quite a different picture to the yellow tape, off-white collapsible gazebo, blood-stained grass, and freshly dug grave that makes the destination of her stroll. She frowns, walks the edge of the yellow tape and studies the crime scene. The turf that once covered the grave had been neatly cut and stacked to one-side, and the dirt had been shovelled onto a blue plastic sheet. She sighs and wondered if, with the level of care that had gone into this, there were many more empty coffins in the graveyard. She glances around at all the neat headstones in their varying shades of grey.

“It looks so, de-personalised like this.” She says sadly as Lukas walks up behind her.

“Hmm?”

“Each one looks the same as the others, all but for a few bouquets.” He sighs and nods.

“I suppose it’ll cheer you to know you won’t be leaving one of these then?”

“I won’t?” she asks sounding puzzled.

“Nah, taken for granted that a hunter’s death results in cremation. We’re too aware of all that can happen after we’re dead and cremation neatly solves all that.” He explains, Cassandra nods mutely, filing the knowledge away. “So what's the deal out here?” he says abruptly, the sharp change in tone jarring.

“Ah, a rather neat job.” the slightly stunned Cassandra supplies

“Neat?” replies Lukas, surprised. “But it left everything a mess.” he turns to look at Cassandra , who sighs and rallies.

“Yes, Albert probably interrupted, but nevertheless preparations were in place to make it possible to leave without a trace. Dirt on a sheet, grass neatly cut and stacked. Give me a reason other than duplicity for doing those things.”

“Alright, alright.” He responds, holding his palms up defensively. “Point conceded.” He sighs and looks back to the grave. “So we have something that wants a six month old corpse and a fresh body equally.” he ponders.

“You think it wasn't merely trying to hide the body and ran out of time to come back and see to this as well?”

“nope, perfect spot right there,” he points to the grave. “That's how I’d do it.” Cassandra nods then reaches for her pocket as a default SMS jingle breaks the silence. “Elias?”

“Yes, they're heading to a café in town and suggest we meet if we are finished.”

“Sounds good.”

 

* * *

 

The café was reasonably sized and traditionally French-styled with a small outdoor patio which contained a selection of cast iron tables and chairs, potted plans, and lamps. The light chill in the air meant that only the four hunters were sat outside with their food, enjoying the relative privacy the deserted patio offered.

“So, our vote is that something supernatural is definitely going on here.” Elias supplies in-between bites of his burger.

“We found nothing to disagree, actually we think it is very practised at grave robbing.” Cassandra replies.

“Reckon the only reason it got caught out was not knowing about Albert.” Lukas adds.

“So now the question is what? Given the corpses I'm going to have to go with Ghoul.” Elias muses, but Lukas shakes his head.

“We discussed this,” he says, inclining his head to indicate Cassandra. “Ghoul wouldn’t want Albert, easiest way to hide him would be to toss him in the grave and re-cover it as it had planned. A Rugaru wouldn’t do that though.” Elias raises his eyebrows sceptically at the explanation.

“Because a Rugaru would want formaldehyde soaked rotting meat.” He retorts.

“Heck what do we know? They were all recent graves, maybe this one likes them spiced.” Lukas says defensively. Severin frowns and clears his throat to interrupt the debate.

“Ghouls and Rugarus?” He asks, Elias rubs his face with one hand before answering.

“Ghouls are monsters that look like the corpses they eat only not rotted. Rugarus are humanoid monsters who crave fresh human meat.” Severin nods thoughtfully.

“So the only difference in food is the length of time between death and consumption?”

“Yes.”

“Then my guess would be a ghoul who had somewhere to use as a meat larder.” He supplies, Elias looks thoughtful and Lukas nods.

“That’d cover it, hell if I’ve a clue what they’d want for a meat larder though. Would they care about it being cool? Heck maybe it’d just bury the body somewhere private to come back to.” He comments.

“I’ll make some calls later, see if anyone else has a clue.” Elias says, “Guess we get to spend the afternoon on research.” He continues, distinctly lacking enthusiasm. Lukas sighs and nods.

 

* * *

 

Much later, after the sun had gone down, Lukas sighs heavily and leans back in the chair their hotel provided to match the room’s desk.

“I give,” he says “there's just not enough to help track it.” Cassandra looks up from her seat against the headboard and nods, looking similarly frustrated.

“Not enough that has been reported anyway.” She says.

“What if it’s just passing through town on its way somewhere else?” Ponders Severin from the small rounded table by the window.

“Albert.” Responds Elias simply from the other side of the table.

“Huh?” Severin says looking puzzled.

“Elias is right,” Lukas begins to explain. “Taking Albert means not only does it have a bolt hole close by, but that it isn’t thinking of skipping town either.”

“Maybe it is hiding its meat in a cave or an old mineshaft?” Cassandra suggests.

“Maybe. But that,” Elias says shutting his laptop, “is a task for tomorrow, because I’m beat.”

“Pick it up in the morning then.” Lukas says nodding.

“-After- breakfast” Elias adds quickly, causing Cassandra and himself to chuckle.

 

* * *

 

The next day, with the sun low in the sky and the morning dew still in evidence on the verge, Elias is woken by the ringing of his phone.

“Hello?” he answers sleepily.

“Agent Brun?”

“Sergeant Fabron, what can we do for you?” Elias yawns softly and sits up, rubbing his face with one hand.

“Sorry for waking you, figured you’d want to know we’re on the way to look at a probably related crime scene.”

“Where am I headed?”

“Quai des Outleux.”

“Thanks, we’ll be there shortly.” Elias hangs up and groans.

“We headed out?” Lukas sleepily calls from the other bed

“Me and Severin are, you get to stay here and have breakfast.” Lukas sighs contentedly and relaxes, making a show of getting comfortable. Elias frowns at him. “What you can do however is get Severin up and getting ready while I do the same.” Lukas’ smile disappears and he sighs.

“Alright.”

 

* * *

 

As Elias and Severin round the corner in the suits Sergeant Fabron steps under the yellow cordon and lifts a hand in greeting. The ally is wide and dusty, but curves around behind the buildings out of sight. Litter from an overturned bin drifts about and two disgruntled looking officers systematically catch and bag the assorted debris and another photographs something out of sight.

“Morning Agents.” Inés Fabron says in greeting, bags under her eyes and her hair looking like it’d only been finger combed, she looked defeated. Elias holds out the extra polystyrene cup to her.

“Took a guess at black.” She nods and accepts it, taking a long drink.

“Good guess, what would you have done if you were wrong?” she asks.

“Told you I had creamer and sugar in my pocket.” She smiles faintly before glancing back to the ally.

“Come on, we’ve cleared a path, I’ll show you what we’ve got.” She steps back under the cordon. Holding it up for Elias to take who in turn passes it to Severin. She walks towards a second smaller cordon that doesn’t quite take up the whole ally. Sporadic torch beams light up the long shadows whenever an officer looks in their direction. Blood pools on the ground near the wall, which itself is decorated with long, high, arterial, sprays of blood. Severin winces and looks away over the rest of the scene.

“I tell you, I don’t know which to hope for. That this is someone else, or that it isn’t.” Inés comments wearily, Elias sighs and nods.

“If it is the same guy, your chances of finding Albert alive just dropped sharply.”

“All the same I’d rather not have two sickos to catch, this looking like something Interpol would want in on?” Elias shakes his head.

“We think this guy’s local so officially Interpol has no jurisdiction as it stands. We’ll be in town for a few days though, till we get a new assignment, so if you want to send us a copy of the evidence log we’ll look it over anyway and let you know if anything stands out to us.”

“Thanks, I’ll take you up on that. No-one I have is particularly practised, and fresh eyes are always good.” She says following them back to the outer cordon, “I’ll have it couriered to your hotel once it’s finished.”

“I don’t suppose anyone was reported missing last night that would tell us whose blood that was?” Severin asks.

“No such luck.” Inés replies, stopping just inside the cordon as Elias and Severin step under it, they turn back to face her as she continues. “You’ll know about it if anything happens. Anything else I can do for you?”

“No, thanks,” Elias answers. “Good luck.” She raises her coffee cup as if to toast them.

“Thanks for the coffee.” She says, before going back to talk to another officer. As they walk to the car Severin pipes up.

“You don’t think this is anything supernatural any-more?”

“Oh I do.”

“Then why say we didn’t want to be involved?”

“First off, I never said we didn’t want to be involved, actually I said the opposite. Secondly, she already knew we had no ‘official’ grounds to be involved. Telling her otherwise would have been hard to do convincingly, and in this case unnecessary. She’d help us anyway because she’s out of options.”

“So you still think this is a ghoul?”

Definitely,” Elias responds, getting in the Chrysler as Severin unlocks it. “A Rugaru would be much more experienced at hunting and wouldn’t have made such a mess. Ghouls aren’t used to fighting prey that fights back.”

“So they're doing a little future planning?”

“Seems so, let’s find out about mines and caves within travelling distance I guess.”

“You weren't kidding when you said most of the job was legwork I see.”

“Mmhmm..”

 

* * *

 

As afternoon draws to a close the group sit around in the local library with various maps and reference books spread about on the table. Lukas scans through the couriered police report with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

“Small town cops. They've listed every bit of detritus that was in the ally, including seven crisp packets... Crisp packets. What has that got to do with a murder investigation that means it isn't listed under 'assorted trash'.” Elias chuckles and Lukas sighs and keeps going. A moment later he frowns at the file in his hands. “Hang about, says here on the evidence log that there was a name-badge belonging to a Matthias Durand. Apparently they rang him to check he was alright but never took it any further.”

“Why ever not?” Asks Cassandra, Elias and Severin perking up with interest.

“Apparently his ‘scrawny’ physique makes it extremely unlikely he’d be able to overpower anyone. Also he broke his wrist last week. He says he must have dropped the badge at some-point.” Lukas explains.

“So if he’s alright and didn’t attack anyone…” Elias frowns and Lukas’ smug expression. “You’ve got a really good reason to mention this haven’t you.” Wordlessly Lukas slides over a black and white photo of a name-tag for a technician at Oakland Crematorium. Elias laughs.

“That would actually be clever if he’d not missed the name-badge.”

“What is it?” Severin asks curiously.

“The name-badge is for Oakland Crematorium, dozens of bodies no-one would look for.” Elias explains.

“Very clever.” Severin comments.

“He’d disappear overnight without a trace.” Lukas says.

“We’re getting ahead of ourselves, why wait until now to replace the assistant? Mayhaps it is just a coincidence.” Cassandra says.

“Maybe he didn’t realise he could. Ghouls have always been grave robbers, by the time someone’s been in the ground long enough they usually don’t have a life to take over.” Elias answers ponderously.

“So how do we tell if we’re right?” Severin asks.

“Short answer is we don’t.” Lukas supplies.

“Right, unlike most other things ghouls don’t react strongly to anything, least-ways not that I’ve heard. They’re one of the monsters that most often end in a failed hunt because they can be very good at hiding in plain sight. So we either have to spy on the person we suspect, which isn’t easy, or trick them into revealing themselves, which can be dangerous. Ghouls are usually stronger than they should be.” Elias explains.

“Well we can’t linger too long here, since you implied we’d not be here too much longer. Guess we try and make him rabbit then.” Lukas says decisively, Elias looks at his watch.

“Find the address, we should have time to go there and have a chat.”

“Alright, time to go poke the hornet’s nest then.” Lukas says chuckling grimly.

 

* * *

 

“Alright, Me Lukas and Cassandra will go inside, Severin you sit here and keep an eye out.” Elias says, planning out loud while they sat outside the crematorium in the Jeep.

“Shouldn’t I join you since we’ve been the two posing as agents?” Severin asks, Elias shakes his head and explains.

“Cassandra’s only there to distract who-ever’s on the front desk, Lukas is coming with me in case there’s a fight. ‘Less you’re telling me you’re up for decapitating someone?” Severin blinks in surprise.

“Well, uh.”

“And that hesitation,” Elias interrupts, “is why you’re staying in the car. Hesitating when you spar only earns a bruise and a rebuke, in a real fight people get hurt, if you’re lucky.”

“It’s not a bullshit job, keep an eye out and let us know if anything happens.” Lukas says.

“I can do that.” Severin says sounding more understanding of being left behind, Elias smiles.

“Sit tight, we’ll be back in a bit.” He says, checking the machete sheathed under his jacket, upside-down on his back, before getting out of the Jeep and straightening the jacket properly. As they walk to the entrance Severin sighs and lets his head fall back against the headrest.

 

* * *

 

Inside the crematorium waiting area, a clean and sterile looking environment, half of the waiting room given over to couches, a table, plants and a few boxes of tissues strategically placed. The other half was set out like an office, a balding middle aged man looks up from his desk in surprise and stands up to greet them.

“Good evening. We were just closing up. Is there something I can do for you?” he asks with the weariness of all customer service staff when a customer lingers around closing.

“I’m Agent Brun this is Agent Oberst and our assistant Claire. Is your technician Matthias Durand still here?” they hold up badges as Elias speaks authoritatively.

“Uhm, yes he is, probably in the back down in the basement, second left. I’ll take you to him.” The man stammers.

“No, that's alright, I'm sure we can find our way. Claire will stay here with you.” Elias deflects.

“Oh, alright then.” The man deflates and sits back down.

“See you soon.” Lukas says smiling at Cassandra as him and Elias go through the door to the back.

“What is all this about anyway?” the man asks Cassandra.

“I would really rather not say without permission.” He nods. “What is your name?”

“Ernest Sarkozi, owner, accountant, receptionist. Etcetera.”

 

* * *

 

Elias and Lukas advance through the back offices and down the stairs next to the lift into a lab.

“This would not be a fun place to have a fight.” Lukas comments as he looks around the lab and all the glass containers of various unknown, probably hazardous, substances .

“Still doesn't top large dark theatre prop rooms though.” Elias mumbles, before calling out louder. “Matthias Durand?”

“Can't believe you're still hung up on that.” Lukas murmurs.

“It was creepy!” Elias mutters back harshly. Lukas smirks and opens the steel weighted door to the morgue.

“No-one here.” Lukas comments as Elias follows him into the morgue, letting the door swing shut behind him.

“Well we might as well take a look while we're here.” Elias goes to the freezer wall and opens one at random to reveal a grey haired woman with a plentiful amount of wrinkles. “Maria Wallis.” he reads off the toe tag. “Died eight days ago from a heart attack.” he pushes the drawer back and shuts the door as Lukas pulls open a second, finds it empty and opens a third as Elias gets to the fourth.

“Wow.” Lukas exclaims as he looks down at the glassy eyed man with short light brown hair and a technicians uniform. “I guess we can cross him off the land of the living then.”

“We've got a bigger problem.” Elias says worriedly, Lukas looks over to Elias' tray to see a very pale looking version of the balding clerk from the front desk.

“Shit.” Lukas comments succinctly before his head jerks up suddenly. “Cassandra.” The two turn to make a run for the door, after only a few steps though they hear the lock click on the door. Elias roars and continues running, slamming his shoulder into the door, it shakes but ultimately remains stuck fast.

“Call them” he snaps at Lukas who looks up from his phone appearing angry.

“No signal.” he pauses for a moment before shoving Elias aside. “Move, I might be able to pick the lock, see if there's any spare keys here while I do.”

“Right.”

 

* * *

 

Cassandra loiters in the atrium and wanders to a framed photo of a lake at sunset, or sunrise, she wasn't sure.

“This is beautiful. Where is it?”

“That's Lake Nisramont.” Ernest replies walking over from the desk. “Never managed to take a good photo of it myself, I had to buy that one if I'm honest.” He reaches over her shoulder to point at an area just outside of the picture. “There's a small pier just out of shot that would have made a nice inclusion to the picture if it lined up better.”

“Pity.” Cassandra says, nodding.

“Yes it is.” Ernest says before quickly reaching round and pining Cassandra's arms with one of his, using the other to grab her nose and mouth. She lets out a muffled scream of surprise.

 

* * *

 

Elias and Lukas dash out of the now open morgue both with drawn machetes, Lukas stuffing lock picking tools out of the way with one hand. He picks up the cell-jammer on the nearby bench and throws it against the wall, smashing it.

“I -hate- those things.”

“Come on.” Elias says from across the room. They hurry back up the stairs and through the office only to find the foyer deserted. Lukas kicks the knocked over flower pot as Elias opens the front door and looks out. “The Jeep's gone too, can you reach either of them?” He steps back inside. Lukas pulls out his phone and dials Cassandra. A default Nokia ringtone sounds out from under the cabinet where the phone had apparently fallen.

“Well that's not good.” He nervously comments, hanging up and dialing Severin as Elias tucks her phone in his pocket. After a couple of nerve-wracking rings Severin answers tersely.

“Where the heck are you? I thought you must be dead.”

“No we got locked in, where are you?”

“Following their car south out of town.”

“Is Cassandra alive do you know?” Elias butts in.

“I think so” Severin responds.

“You think?” Lukas snaps.

“Well there's not a lot of reasons to tie someone up otherwise.” Lukas and Elias let out sighs of relief.

“Okay,” Elias starts, sounding calmer as the beginnings of a plan begin to form. “Keep following but -be careful-, we'll catch up and sort this out together.”

“How when I have the Jeep?”

“And most of the weapons so don’t lose it. We'll hotwire a car and call you back, don't try and take it on yourself.”

“Them.” corrects Severin.

“What?”

“There's two of them.”

“Shit. How'd we miss that?” Lukas mutters.

“Doesn't matter, keep us posted.”

“Will do.” Severin answers before hanging up.

“Come on.” Elias says, dashing outside.

 

* * *

 

Cassandra wakes up with a start as the car goes over a bump. It takes her a moment but she finally identifies her location as the boot of a car, a gag tied tightly around her mouth, and stretching reveals her hands bound behind her back and feet tied together. She curses inwardly, with her head already buzzing from their attack what she was about to do was not the smartest idea in the world, but there was little to be done about it. She focused on calming herself, using the sure knowledge that what she was attempting would help her, to settle herself. Closing her eyes she breathed out slowly, and looked ahead.

_The vision, greyscale and rippling, showed her looking over her own shoulder on a darkened street somewhere. Time kept speeding up irregularly as she entered the empty building._

_“Elias?” She calls out, the voice echoey and distorted, as if it came from a long way away, which in a way, it did. She watches herself explore the building in jerky fast forward until she rounds a corner and hears mumbling. Dashing forward to find Elias pointing a gun at her. Everything else blurs, including the shapeless figure that had held its hand over Elias' mouth._

_“Cassandra I'm sorry.” Elias blurts._

_“Elias, what...”_

_“I can't stop myself.”_

_“Elias no, fight it, please!” The future Cassandra takes a step back._

_“I'm sorry.”_

_“ELI!” She screams as the gun fires and hits her square in the chest._

_“NOO!” Elias roars. The syllable echoing as the vision fades._

Cassandra sucks in air, heart racing and breathing hard. A mantra of 'oh merde' running round and round inside her head. Never had she seen her own death before and apparently her body was a little surprised to still be alive. Eventually she got her heart rate under control and begins to assess the situation. So she'd seen her death, and it'd been a weird one, though weird pretty much defined her life, especially now. What mattered was that she could do something about it now, but more importantly, the ghouls weren’t in it. So as things were progressing they wouldn’t have gotten to kill her, all she had to do now was not change a variable that may or may not exist, that she had no idea what it was.

She sighed, that line of thought was useless and in danger of being circular. If there was a way out of this alive then it meant Severin, Elias, and Lukas or some combination of the three were on their way. So all she had to do was wait, and stall for what time she could, or take an escape opportunity if one came up and she should be fine. Without the mental exercise that was sorting the vision to occupy her, the blinding headache and mounting panic threatened to overwhelm her. Instead she strained to catch the occasional exchanged words from the two ghouls.

“Still can't believe you got them locked in so easily.”

“Me either, I thought for sure one of them would make it to the door before I could lock it.” The first voice chuckles.

“Think they'll still be there?”

“Doubt it. Hard to predict where they'll go when they get out too.” The car turns right off the road, causing Cassandra to slide a little in the boot. The road suddenly becomes drastically bumpier. No longer a narrow and paved country lane, but a mere dirt track. All conversation between the ghouls becomes unintelligible over the noise of the car. Eventually the car comes to a halt, the sound of a door slamming, followed by a second reverberates through the car. Cassandra closes her eyes and goes limp. The boot opens, the dim light in the lid doing its best to illuminate the darkness.

“Still unconscious?” Matthias asks Ernest.

“Nah, I heard her moving, she's playing dead.” he says in response before raising his voice. “Stop pretending, you bitch.” He snaps before grabbing her roughly and hauling her out. Cassandra struggles against the hold ineffectually. Ernest looks to his friend. “Get the door.” He drags the struggling Cassandra to the cabin as his friend jogs ahead to open it. The cabin is an old log cabin that’s clearly been added to a few times over the years as necessity dictated. The first room looks as though, aside from lack of kitchen, it could be lived in by itself. A table and chairs in one corner, and pallets covered by bedding against the free walls, two doors lead off from this room and Ernest drags her through into the back room. This room follows the Spartan theme and appears to be a food preparation area. A butchers block and series of cabinets line the walls. In the far corner the floor is sunken slightly and laminated with a drain in the center as if it was a super-sized shower, there’s even a shower head on a cord present, but no shower curtain. Instead the roof beam overhead had a chain and hook dangling from it. Cassandra finally managed to dislodge the gag.

“Let me go!” she shouts as she's dragged to the laminated corner. Matthias steps ahead and wrestles the rope around Cassandra's ankles onto the hook and hoisting the chain up, lifting her ankles up and making her slip backwards, the abused head hitting the floor as she's lifted upside down. The blood rushes to her head, making her dizzy and exacerbating the splitting headache.

Blinking her eyes and focusing to try and clear her head she notices the ghouls with their backs to her cleaning and sorting various tools, it occurs to her that a small amount of time has passed since she was hung, she raises her voice and speaks, slurring slightly, “Killing me would be a mistake.” Matthias stops and turns to face her.

               

“Why?” he says arrogantly. “Because if we don't a death more painful and prolonged than any we could imagine will find us? As opposed to what? Free of all consequence if we let you go? No thanks, we'll take our chances.” He finishes, dripping sarcasm, and turns back to the bench.

“They're going to come for me, going to break out of where you put them, and row you up salt river.” She continues slowly.

“Maybe” Ernest responds. “But that's where you come in. See, when they come in here and see two of you they're going to hesitate. Giving us the chance to finish them off while they fight the impulse to not shoot you. So, you see, you really have nothing to bluff with.” He says, picking up a sharp looking knife and moving towards her. For that moment Cassandra is certain she blew it by bluffing when she should have been silent. She begins to struggle again as he approaches, an eager and superior expression on his face.

He pauses as a floorboard in the other room creaks, the ghouls turn to the door as it slams open framing Lukas, holding a machete and looking furious. Ernest flips the knife at him, Lukas dodges at the last second leaving the knife quivering in the door frame it embedded itself into.

Matthias yells and charges Lukas, ducking the swing of the machete and throwing Lukas over to the empty corner. He turns back to the door just in time to see Elias' Serbu Super-Shorty and manage to yank it up and to the side so the roof has a hole in instead of himself.

Ernest starts picking up the knives and tools on the butchers block and throwing them one after another, keeping Lukas from closing the distance and using his machete.

Elias and Matthias grapple furiously, the struggle having pushed the door closed and pinned Matthias against it. He head-butts Elias and trips him, sitting astride and pushing the shotgun down against Elias' throat.

Severin finally gets the door open, with the briefest of glances to Cassandra he yells inarticulately, swinging the machete he holds up into Matthias' neck. Matthias gurgles a hand going to his neck as Severin kicks him off Elias and sinks the machete into its skull.

Ernest runs out of knives to throw, Lukas yanks a scalpel out of his right bicep and charges him, swinging the machete in a wide arc. As Elias rolls to his feet and picks up the shotgun Lukas' machete gets embedded in the butchers block. Ernest takes advantage of the momentary distraction of trying to free his machete and socks Lukas' face, knocking him over.

Elias glares down the barrel of the shotgun and snaps “Eat this” as he fires, the blast taking Ernest in the chest and staggering him. Elias slots another pair of shells into the shotgun as he steps forward. Ernest roars and runs at Elias, only to run head-first into the next shotgun blast. The force flipping him over so that what's left of him lands flat on its back.

Lukas sits up and wipes the blood dripping from his nose with the back of his hand, frowning as he looks at it. “Nice shot” he comments. Elias sets the shotgun down and grunts as he yanks Lukas' machete out of the block. He hands it to Lukas before him and Severin walk to Cassandra.

“We got your back chicky,” Elias says, before grunting as he unfastens the chain from the wall and takes the weight, slowly lowering her to the floor. Severin takes her shoulders and makes sure she doesn't bang her head again. In the background there's a dull thud as Lukas takes the head off Matthias, having apparently decided it unnecessary for Ernest.

“Are you alright?” Severin worriedly asks Cassandra as he sets her down on the floor.

“My head feels like it was trampled by a cart horse, and then the cart as well.” She croaks out, “but I shall be right as rain.” Severin grins in relief, taking the knife Elias offers he rolls Cassandra onto her side and works on cutting the ropes around her wrists. Elias removes the hook and works on the ropes around her ankles. They both wince at the bloodied ropes as they're set aside.

“Take her to the Jeep,” Elias decides, “There's a first aid kit under the front passenger seat.”

“Front passenger seat,” Severin repeats as he struggles to lift Cassandra to her feet.

“I got it.” Lukas says, stepping in and picking Cassandra up with ease. “You help out here.” Lukas props the door open with his foot and walks out.

“Nice work with the ghoul. Wasn't sure you had it in you.” Elias tells Severin as he stands up.

“Neither was I.” Severin responds eventually, looking unsteadily at the decapitated Matthias.

 

* * *

 

“I can probably walk you know.” Cassandra informs Lukas as he carries her down the dirt track to the Jeep.

“Good for you.” he responds neutrally, not even breaking pace let alone putting her down. Cassandra sighs and relaxes.

“Thank you.”

“'Course.” Despite the abrupt response, Lukas almost smiles as he says it. Cassandra rests her head on his shoulder and closes her eyes, opening them only when Lukas struggles with the car door, eventually opening it with one hand and setting Cassandra on the seat inside. “Sit here, won't be a moment.” Lukas opens the front passenger door of the Jeep and lifts the first-aid suitcase, as it would be more accurately described, and sets it on the seat to sort through.

“How did you find me?”

“Your boy Severin followed them and was clever enough not to get noticed doing so.” Lukas sighs, still not having met her eyes. “Getting locked in like we did was stupid.” He walks around the door and begins cleaning the bloodied ankles with anti-septic wipes. Cassandra hisses as the wipe touches the wounds. “Sorry.” Lukas murmurs, “You shouldn’t have been alone and unarmed like that.”

“It's alright.”

“No, it's not.” He looks up to her, “We can fix that, give you at least half a chance.” She smiles,

“Thank you.”

 

* * *

 

Much later that night, well into the darkest part of the night, the four stand around an open grave with the two ghouls in it. The cabin in the background mostly swallowed up by the night. Lukas calmly empties a can of petrol into the hole, soaking the ghouls and the ground around them.

“Is there a reason we're burning them?” Severin asks quietly. Elias looks over and answers.

“While I've never heard of anything coming back from a decapitation or leaving a ghost someone had to come back to deal with, it makes sense to be sure.”

“So it's just paranoia?”

“There's a few more practical concerns for burning them. One, a lot of the things we hunt don't look exactly human, and we can’t have anyone finding them. Two, digging a six foot deep grave is exhausting, we don't need to go as deep if we burn as well. And lastly, the off-chance that something will leave a vengeful spirit behind really is enough of a reason by itself.” Severin nods and remains silent. Lukas sets the petrol can down away from the grave and walks to Cassandra who holds a crumpled tube of newspaper. Clicking the lighter a couple of times he sets the tube alight and steps back, gesturing for her to drop it in the grave.

She turns it for a moment to let it catch better before letting it drop into the grave, she steps back as the petrol ignites with a soft whoosh. The light from the flames illuminates the immediate area well but makes the darkness swallow all else completely. Cassandra looks up from the makeshift pyre to meet Elias' gaze. For a split second the shifting light from the pyre matches the way the light fell on him in her vision and the final moments of it overlay reality. The gun, muzzle-flash, and expression of anguish, even the remembered echo of his roar. Reality seems to slam back into her and she drops his gaze.

“It's not always like that.” He reassures her, mistaking the cause of her anxiety. Cassandra merely nods in response. It would be easy to avoid the fate she glimpsed. She could leave and do her best to avoid Elias, but then who would take her place if even that fate didn't follow her. For all leaving would do is change the players, not the shooting itself. She sighs, this requires some serious thought, she paints a smile on her face and lifts her head, meeting their gazes reassuringly.


End file.
